


Reverie in the dark

by CsjLam



Series: Six phantom thief au [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Angst, Detective!Anna, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Phantom Thief AU, detective!Catherine of Aragon, journalist!Catherine Parr, journalist!Jane, thief!Anne, thief!Katherine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27100648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CsjLam/pseuds/CsjLam
Summary: Phantom thief au of six the musical where Anne is a phantom thief who suddenly went from stealing normal stuff to suddenly targeting the property of Henry, well known tycoon (and *sshole) of London.
Relationships: Everyone & Everyone
Series: Six phantom thief au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978057
Comments: 47
Kudos: 49





	1. Prologue-The great phantom thief

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings! Welcome to my phantom thief au of six! If you have any inquiries on the au or are interested in learning more about it, feel free to check out my tumblr (ender1821)! Anyways, enjoy the story!

The nighttime of London was always surrounded by a mysterious aura. The darkening of the sky above means different things to everyone, it may be the sweet release from their jobs or school. To some it may be the most calming part of their day, watching the sunset, counting stars, going to sleep. However, the night meant other things to Anne Boleyn. You see, a year ago, a self proclaimed “phantom thief” appeared throughout the busy streets of London. This mysterious individual would go on to steal precious jewellery and artefacts without being caught for the past year. Well, until tonight.

On this special day, a figure dashed off after one of their missions, utilising various rooftops and buildings to manoeuvre quickly. This person was the notorious phantom thief, or, as you would’ve already guessed, Anne Boleyn.

“The suspect took a left turn!” A voice boomed through the intercoms.

A shadow raced through the streets of London, several civilians would begin taking photographs and recordings of the chase, but that wasn’t Anne’s top concern right now. With a team of renowned investigators chasing her, her only concern right now is to find an escape route. Her eyes scanned the structures up ahead, her mind began racing through her current options.

“Turn right! A truck is coming by, you’ll know what to do!” Someone notified the thief. She followed the instruction given to her and turned right, with the people behind her following suit.

Anne continued to jump across one rooftop to another, each jump followed with another in rapid succession, it was almost turning rhythmic to the green thief. She noticed the pedestrians gawking at the sight of her, as if she was some hero from an action movie. Well, her life is sort of similar.

Her sense of rhythm was suddenly thrown off when the entrance of the next building’s roof bursted open, with a well built female stepping out. Anne would’ve turned back, but the people chasing her were already behind her. The female on the building in front of her looked somewhat familiar to her, she had guessed who they were as soon as they stepped out, and her suspicions were confirmed when they yelled at the thief.

“Drop all your weapons and hold both your hands up! You’re under arrest!” Ah, so it is her.

“I don’t have any weapons though, did you really think I’d bring one?” She spoke in a silvery tone, with a little giggle at the end of her sentence.

“Don’t try anything, criminal. We’ve got you surrounded already.” The woman on the other Side spoke again.

“Really now? You have no idea what tricks I have up my sleeves,” she responded, but at the end of her reply, she added something to try and get a rise out of the opposing side,

**_“Catalina.”_**

“How dare you-” the woman hissed, and gestured for her team to close in on the thief.

In that moment, Anne spotted something in the corner of her eye. A truck. Just like the person had told her through her earpiece.

“Sorry, but I don’t think I’m in the mood to be arrested today!” She sung.

As the people behind her reached out to grab the thief, she pulled out her grappling hook and aimed towards the street, just in time for the truck. The team of officers behind her could only stand in shock as the thief disappeared in a blink of an eye, the woman on the other building turned to see the thief on top of the vehicle being driven away. Both of their eyes met, but the lead detective’s glare was only returned with the thief’s taunt when Anne stuck her tongue out and held out her hand in the shape of an L on her forehead.

“Goddammit!” The woman cursed, gritting her teeth and stomping hard on the ground.

“Captain?” One of her colleagues asked.

“What?!” She yelled.

“Maybe you should go home for now, you deserve a break.” The officer in red tried to calm her captain down, the team rarely saw this side of her, so it’s pretty horrifying. No, that’s an understatement, if someone new saw her in her current state, they’d probably piss themselves.

The captain looked behind her colleague, everything was being dealt with and it seemed like she couldn’t do anything else but to go back and rest.

“You’re right, sorry for the yelling, Anna.” She quickly apologised and turned around, heading for the exit. However, before she could reach it, a phone had begun to ring.

“Ah, sorry, that’s mine.” Her coworker told her. She stared at the phone with great curiosity, and decided to confirm her suspicions of who the caller could be.

“It’s Jane, isn’t it?” She questioned Anna.

“Yep, she probably wants to know what happened here.” She responded, then grabbed the phone out of her pocket.

“Knew it.” She sighed, then turned the doorknob to leave the roof of the building.

With that, the great phantom thief escaped the clutches of her soon to be rival, Catherine Aragon, for the very first and certainly not the last time.

Catherine Parr watched the live broadcast of the chase, she had been following the case of the infamous phantom thief ever since their first crime. She was surprised to know that the mysterious thief has finally made a proper appearance, but she had other things on her mind besides that, and the extremely loud banging of the front door only made her even more worried.

“Cathy? Is dinner ready yet?” A tired voice called out from the entrance.

“Yeah! It’ll be ready in a minute!” She responded to the voice’s question. After turning off the television, she headed towards the kitchen to bring out two plates of pasta. “Sorry for not preparing more, I had something due tomorrow.”

The exhausted investigator hung her coat and walked slowly towards the dining table, assuring her goddaughter that it’s fine.

“Hey, you seem pretty tired, the phantom thief was hard to catch, huh?”

“I chased her down several streets, so yeah, they’re hard to catch alright.” She sighed, she’s been tracking down this thief for almost a year, and she blew her chance tonight, so she’s not feeling particularly well. Catherine Aragon was well-known for solving multiple cases that others have simply given up on, so when the news of the phantom thief reached her, she was determined to catch this criminal as well.

“Take a break, god knows you deserve one.” Cathy said with a worried expression. She couldn’t help but notice the toll this case has taken on her godmother, and she would do anything to help her with this case.

“Yeah, everyone keeps saying that...” she said, and accompanied the sentence with a very strange gesture, leading to Cathy almost spitting out the water she had been drinking. She waved both her hands around and was confused when Cathy almost choked herself to death. “What? Am I doing this wrong?”

“Pardon my language, but what the hell were you trying to do with your arms?” She chuckled as her godmother continued to look at her with pure confusion in her eyes.

“I thought this was how you do the umm....jazz hands?” She began to question. “Did I do it wrong?”

“......who taught you that?”

“Jane and Anna, why?”

“Thought so. Please don’t do that ever again. Especially not in front of Anne.”

“Right.” She smirked a little due to her goddaughter’s chuckle, she always had a weak spot for her, but don’t ever bring that up in front of her, she can and will destroy you.

“I doubt I can even get the chance to do that in front of Anne, I haven’t seen her in a while anyways.”

“I thought you forgave her for the.......Henry thing?”

“Yeah, she’s just been really busy lately, Jane said so herself.”

“Well, just don’t ever do that again.”

“Fine, don’t know why you think it is so bad that I can’t show it to anyone else.”

“It’s embarrassing, alright? I’d rather you not learn from Jane and Anna.” Their banter continued throughout the night, and even though Catherine wouldn’t admit it to anyone, she really treasured every moment she had with her goddaughter, her family.

“Hey, Jane?” A voice called out to the blonde journalist.

“Yes, Joan?” The woman turned around to face the voice calling out to her, finding the source of the sound laying haphazardly on the couch.

“Doesn’t Katherine usually come by on Saturdays? You know, today?” Joan said as she began to reach for a red and blue object placed on the coffee table near her.

“She told me she’d be a bit late today, did you need anything from her?”

“No, just asking, that’s all.” She replied as she turned on the device in her hand. Before she could continue playing with the object, the sound of a key being inserted was heard by the both of them. “Looks like your next victim is arriving shortly.”

“Oh she should already be prepared to face the wrath of my interrogation.” Jane chuckled while heading to the front door.

The door opened as soon as she finished her sentence. A figure stood at the entrance, visibly burnt out.

“So, did the great detective manage to catch another one?” Joan asked the person currently walking into their home.

“Nope.”

“Really? I thought no one could escape the famous Catherine?”

“Yeah, I thought so too. This thief really is something.” They complained, walking towards the couch for a well earned rest. However, just as they were about to reach their destination, they noticed the object Joan had been holding in her hands. “Wait a minute, is that my switch?”

“Ummmm.....yes?”

They were quite annoyed by Joan’s actions of using their console without telling them first, so they were about to grab it out of her hands, but they suddenly felt an arm reach for their collar, pulling them back near the front door.

“Not so fast, you’re telling me what happened at the chase first.” Jane warned them, and they understood all too well what could happen when they ignore Jane of all people. Jane tugged at their sleeves, leading them to the dining table.

“I hope you make it out alive!” Joan waved playfully at them. Jane sat the tired individual onto a chair next to the dining table, she then pulled out her phone and a notepad, readying herself for the so-called “interrogation”.

“Now then, Anna, tell me everything that happened.”

The green thief rode out of the crowded area of the city on the truck, chatting with the person on the other side of her earpiece until she reached an area where she can change out of her outfit without being seen.

“Why did you call her that? You know she only allows people close to her to call her by that! Do you have a death wish or something?!” A worried voice was asking through her earpiece, which she promptly responded by saying, “dunno, just felt like doing it.”

The other person on the line was not satisfied with her answer at all, but gave up begrudgingly.

“Fine. I hope you know what you’re doing. You’re smarter than anyone has ever assumed you for, so I trust that you’re doing the right thing.”

“Gee, thanks for putting so much faith in me, Maggie!” She exclaimed sarcastically.

The thief’s conversation with Maggie continued, with Anne paying close attention to her surroundings to search for a spot to leave. Her environment ran through her brain, processing each object, person or building one at a time. Her observations continued for a while, but just as she arrived in a familiar neighbourhood, she saw someone who was eerily familiar to her. It was a young woman being harassed by a seemingly large man, who was so drunk his breath only smelled of alcohol. The girl with him wore a choker with the letter “K” dangling from it, with the tips of her hair being dyed in hot pink. Anne’s eyes widened. No, it couldn’t be her. However, the signature ponytail the girl wore gave away her identity to Anne almost immediately. It was the cousin she would give her life for no matter what, it was Katherine Howard.

“Maggie?

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Katherine’s visiting Jane tonight, right? Like usual?”

“Um, I think so? She visits them every Saturday, so she should be with Jane. If she isn’t visiting her today, then she should still be out since she left before you went out... Is something wrong?”

“Shit.”


	2. Until we meet again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne does something that she might regret later......while Cathy and Jane have a slightly important conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title was inspired by “Dear Happy” by Dodie, since the chapter isn’t all that happy for like.....half of the whole thing.

Katherine was headed towards her cousin’s home, like always, it was a sort of.....a habit at this point. It all started around a year ago when Anne had begun going out every Saturday day night and Maggie closed herself off in her room whenever she left. They left Katherine in the house with absolutely nothing to do, so she began visiting Jane and her housemates every Saturday night.

Her brain was in “auto drive mode”, as she liked to call it. She navigated through the streets quickly, she knew the path like the back of her hand. However, today wasn’t like any other. To begin with, Anne had been hogging the only bathroom in their home, making her late to head out. She called Jane ahead of time to notify her that she’d be late, but even after that, her trip had begun to take a turn for the worse.

She reached a deserted area of the city, where Anne had always reminded her to watch out for. Apparently, tons of creeps and drunks hang out here to stalk for their next prey, I know, shocking.

 _“Remember to walk outta that place quickly, get out of there as soon as possible.”_ Anne’s words lingered in the back of her head.

She picked up her pace, turning from strolling to scurrying along. She always wished to have her cousin live somewhere else, so that she didn’t have to go through this creepy street every time she went for a visit.

Just as she was about to leave, a pair of arms grabbed her, pulling her back. Her mind immediately snapped back into reality, she turned her head to see an incredibly massive man, no wait, she recognised this man.

“Hey love, what’s a pretty girl like you doing out here?” The man slurred, his breath smelled terrible, with a slight hint of alcohol within it.

“Let go of me!” She yelled, trying desperately to escape the man’s grasp.

 _“If anyone tries something there, remember to scream as loudly as possible and fight back, alright?”_ Her cousins advice came flooding back into her mind. However, no matter how hard she tried, the man yanked her back, causing her to fall onto the ground.

“Shut up! You wouldn’t want me to be rougher, would you now?” He smirked, slowly approaching the distressed girl on the floor.

Anne was absolutely enraged by the sight of this. She instantly jumped off the moving truck, earning her a few new bruises, but she didn’t care about that. All she had on her mind was to save her dear cousin.

She dashed towards the scene of the assault without hesitation, not even planning for what to do ahead. The person on the other side of the earpiece was stressed as well, she had no clue what events are about to unfold, after all.

“Anne?! What’s going on over there?” Maggie shouted into her microphone, but she got no response, only the heavy breathing of the phantom thief.

“Oi, shit face!” She shouted at the man, gaining both the man and Katherine’s attention.

The man was, of course, confused to see someone dressed in what he was assuming to be cosplay trying to stop him. Anne noticed his visible confusion. Another thing she noticed was that the person was someone she knew. Better yet, someone that she hated.

“Let the girl go before I do something I regret.” She warned them, with every word of hers seemingly dripping with venom.

The person she warned didn’t listen to her threat, but instead tried to continue his assault. Bad move on his part to ignore a furious Anne Boleyn.

To Anne’s dismay, she suddenly remembered that she actually didn’t carry any weapons on her. Probably karma for taunting Catherine. Besides, Anne didn’t actually want to hurt the man. No, not because of mercy, it was because then the man would definitely report her to the authorities. She’s at least a little sane to remember that she’s trying not to reveal her identity. Therefore, even if she really wanted to beat the crap out of him right then and there, she had to hold herself back.

One thing she did carry on her though, was her trusty grappling hook. Now, seeing as this person was noticeably drunk, Anne figured they wouldn’t notice the difference between a grappling hook and a gun. So, she pulled the riskiest stunt she could ever pull at that moment. She pulled out the tool and aimed it straight towards the man.

The man did a double take on Anne and the object she had in her hand, and to Katherine’s surprise, he freaked out.

“Wait! Please! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” He shrieked out, now kneeling on the ground and looked as if he was begging for his life.

“Don’t you ever try that again,” she paused for a bit, but her anger took hold of her, making her add something she’ll definitely regret later,

“Henry Tudor.”

Katherine sat there in shock. She thought her life was done for, but this mysterious person had saved their life. She was grateful, but there’s something about this person that just doesn’t seem right. They looked too familiar. Well, she didn’t really cared about that part, what she cared about was getting home into hopefully the arms of her older cousin. She sobbed, trying to mutter words of gratitude for the individual, but what she didn’t expect was for the person to rush over to her side and almost hug the life out of her.

“T-thank you.....thank you so much!” She continued to sob onto the person’s shoulders. Anne’s mind was all over the place, but the next course of action shook both herself and the girl she had in her arms.

“It’s alright, kitty. You’re safe with me.” She ran her fingers through the poor girl’s hair, trying her best to calm them down. She didn’t even realise that she had revealed something she didn’t mean to.

Katherine heard the name this person had called her, that name was only used by one person, but she couldn’t believe it. No, she refused to believe it, in her state of shock, she mumbled out something which reminded Anne of what kind of mistake she had made.

“.......Annie?”

Catherine Parr absolutely hated confrontation and everything that came with it.

She stood in front of a wooden door with a shiny nameplate on the front of it, she had only begun to stand there for a few seconds, but to her it was an eternity. Still, she ignored the curious glances of her coworkers and continued to stand idly there, with her hands nervously fidgeting with the doorknob.

She wished she could have just turned back and go to work on her next piece, but a sudden call interrupted her from her trance. The door opened and her hand had slipped away from the doorknob. On the other side of the door stood a blonde woman in some regular business attire.

“Cathy? What are you doing outside?”

She avoided any and all eye contact while she stepped into the office, taking a seat at the nearest chair.

“Sorry, I was just thinking.” She apologised to the woman who was about to take a seat in front of her.

“It’s alright, I know you tend to do that sometimes, your godmother tends to talk about a lot.”

“Right....of course she does.” Cathy muttered under her breath. She looked upwards for a bit and asked the woman, “why’d you call me here, Jane?”

“Ah, I just wanted to check in on you, Catherine’s been asking about you, a lot.” Jane responded with a slight smile on her face.

“I’m doing quite well, the news about that phantom thief has been booming recently.”

“Right, the phantom thief, I also wanted to ask you if-” Jane was stopped in the middle of her question as Cathy swiftly responded, “she was super tired last night, so I wanted to let her rest first.”

“Yeah, Anna looked tired last night too.....” Jane said to herself, but before she could continue, Cathy asked Jane a question regarding something that’s been bothering her last night, “does Anna know what happened between that thief and my godmother?”

Jane, surprised by Cathy’s sudden inquiry, began recounting the conversation she had with Anna last night in her head.

> “That’s all that happened?” Jane asked, raising her eyebrows.
> 
> “Well....that’s all I could remember that should be important, at least.” Anna told Jane, who still wasn’t too satisfied with her answer. However, before Jane could continue her question further, Anna added, “though there was something I found odd about what happened, but it isn’t something you should write about.”
> 
> “Why shouldn’t I write about it?”
> 
> “It’s about the thief calling Catherine by her Spanish name.”
> 
> “......oh.”

“So the thief called her something she doesn’t like? That’s all?” Cathy pressed on, trying to understand why her godmother had been acting slightly weird last night.

“It isn’t just something she doesn’t like to be called.....” Jane answered her question, staring into space while trying to think of a proper explanation, “she only allowed a few important people in her life to call her by that name.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know the full story, but it involved her family. The last person I’ve heard of who called her that was.....”

“Was who?”

“.......it was Henry.”

Cathy jumped at the sound of that horrendous name. She has never met the guy in person, but from several accounts, she could tell that Henry.....wasn’t exactly a great person. In fact, she has listened to someone rant about him so many times that even she has developed a slight hatred of the man.

“I see how that thief affected her by merely calling her a name now....” Cathy said, with a hint of regret in the voice.

“If she were to encounter that thief again, I doubt they’ll have a civilised conversation.”

“So....”

“One last question before you go,” Jane said, standing up from her comfortable office chair, “did Kat call or text you? Anything at all?”

“What?”

“Well, I thought you were still pretty close to her, so I figured you would know, sorry if I-”

“No, no it’s fine. It’s just that she hasn’t really contacted me that much.”

“Ah....”

“Is something wrong?”

“She was supposed to visit yesterday night, but she never showed up.”

“Did you call her or text her? Anything?”

“I did, but she didn’t even read them. I figured she probably left her phone at home or something, so I went out last night to try to see if she was anywhere near.”

“And you still didn’t find her?”

“No, I didn’t, but I got a message from Anne.”

“Wait, Anne Boleyn?”

“Yes, she said she took her back home since something happened. I didn’t really question her any further, since we.....don’t exactly get along. I thought maybe you knew what happened last night?”

“Sorry, I don’t know either.”

“That’s fine, I’m just glad to know she’s safe,” She said as she opened the door of her office, “you can go now, I know you still have some work to do.”

“Thanks.” Cathy said while getting up from her chair, “I do have one last question...”

Jane looked at Cathy, clearly bewildered by the sudden question.

“Why’d you teach her those slang words and memes?” She asked the other woman, who almost bursted out laughing after hearing her query.

“She wanted to learn them so she’d be able to ‘communicate better’ with you, so I agreed to help.” Jane proudly declared with a smug look on her face.

“I hope you know I almost choked to death because of it.” Cathy said, cringing at the thought of her conversation with her godmother yesterday, Jane snickered at Cathy’s reaction.

“Just know that she asked for my help because she cares about you.” Jane reminded Cathy, and then proceeded to lightly pat her on the shoulder.

With that, Cathy walked out of Jane’s office, thankful for the conversation not being too serious. After Jane closed the door, she walked back to her desk with a somber look. She carefully picks up a picture frame she had on her desk, staring longingly at it with a bittersweet smile. Inside the picture frame, there was a picture of her family. However, several members of it had their faces cut out, leaving Jane and a few others’ faces visible.

“If only I had a family like yours.” She muttered under her breath, gazing into the photograph for a few more seconds before getting interrupted by a phone ringing. She placed the picture frame back onto her desk, then turned her attention to the phone she had on her table.

The screen showed a phone call incoming, and on the top, it showed the caller’s name: Catherine Aragon.

“How’d you know that I just finished talking to her?”

“She texted me saying so, how’s she doing at your side?”

“She’s been amazing so far, I really regret not taking her in as soon as you said she was interested in journalism.”

Jane heard a hearty laugh from the person on the other side of the phone call, and the two continued their exchange over the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the feedback and comments on the last chapter! If you have any questions regarding the au, feel free to comment! I’ll try responding as soon as possible!


	3. Dirty tissues, trust issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne faces the consequences of her actions, while Cathy and Catherine has dinner with a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is from “consequences” by Camila Cabello, since I thought it’d fit the chapter.... and because I’m not creative when it comes to titles.

Anne Boleyn woke up the next day, the sun shining on her face, waking her up with its brightness. She stretched her arms, still tired from last night’s activities. She exited her room to find both her cousin and best friend chatting away happily- no wait, that’s not what happened.

Anne, along with the two other members of her flat couldn’t manage to sleep through the night, although they all had a different reason for their sudden insomnia. For Anne, it was mostly because of her trying to think of an appropriate to explain.....everything, she messed up, and now she had to face the consequences.

For Katherine, she was in denial. She didn’t talk to Anne for the entirety of their trip back home, and the silence was proof of how Anne hasn’t even begun to realise how much she royally screwed up. Along with her cousin’s mistake, there’s also the trauma of the events that unfolded earlier in the night, so it’s safe to say that Katherine didn’t sleep a wink.

At last, for Maggie, she was trying to think of the aftermath of Anne’s actions. She knew Anne didn’t want to inform Katherine of their....plans every Saturday night for specific reasons, like not wanting her cousin to worry or not wanting her to be involved in any way possible. That way, if she ever got too careless and was caught, at least Katherine would be safe. However, that’s all thrown out the window now.

The three had no intention of sleeping, as soon as the two cousins got back, every single one of them chose to lock themselves inside their respective rooms, and for once, the flat was dead silent.

Anne was lost in a sea of thoughts, but the sound of a door opening made her snap out of it. She had absolutely no idea who had left their room, but she knew she owed them both an explanation anyways, so she made her way towards the door. She opened it slowly and tried to peek out, of course, she couldn’t really tell who it was from their silhouette, her mind was too muddled at the moment. Therefore, she stepped out, taking a deep breath as she did so.

The person who was outside, unfortunately, was Katherine Howard.

The two met each other’s gazes, and Anne could notice a bunch of tissues in her poor cousin’s hand. If Anne saw her cousin holding a ball of tissues that were used to wipe her tears, she would’ve instantly asked her who she needed to murder, but seeing this was probably caused by herself, she just muttered curses under her breath.

“I’m-” Anne tried to start off with an apology, but was immediately cut off.

“Don’t be sorry. I’m just......kind of shocked. That’s all.” Katherine interrupted, dropping the pile of tissues into a bin, “why didn’t you tell me?”

This question was one that Anne had tried to prepare for. She even tried to write down a script and memorise it instead, but in the end, she thought she should just speak from the heart instead of lying to her cousin again. She ripped out the pages from her notebook, tearing them into shreds.

“I wanted to keep you safe. If people found out, at least you’d be able to avoid being arrested.” Anne said, her eyes drooped down slightly, making her stare into the ground with a sorrowful look. God, she couldn’t even look at her cousin without feeling guilty.

“......don’t you think I’d worry about you too?” Katherine questioned, stepping a tiny bit forward.

“I know. That’s why I didn’t want you to know.”

“You’ve been doing this for a year. A year of keeping secrets, is that what you want? Have you been lying this whole time? About all your ‘jobs’, your ‘friends’, your ‘meetings’?” Katherine began to yell, despite her throat being sore due to her crying before.

Anne felt like she got punched, with one sentence alone, Anne was lost for words. Yes, she had been lying about most things her cousin had accused her of. She made up so many things to keep this one secret, and she didn’t actually feel bad about it at first, she thought it was for the greater good. Oh how she regrets even having that thought in her mind.

“I....” she tried to think of a response, but nothing came up in her mind.

“I thought you were telling the truth every single time! I went through a whole year, with everything you’ve told me all being lies?!”

Maggie didn’t hear their conversation too clearly at first, but she knew that Katherine’s upset, and for once, it was both her and Anne’s fault. She wanted to get herself out of her room, wanted to help Anne explain everything, but another one of Katherine’s shouts made her stop dead in her tracks.

“Does Maggie know? Did you tell her? Instead of your cousin? _Your family?_ ” Katherine’s voice gradually became more and more croaky, her tears streaming down her face rapidly.

Anne was, once again, conflicted. A realisation hit her, Katherine doesn’t know Maggie’s involvement in this. She understood that she was wrong for lying about herself for the past year, but was it really right for her to drag her best friend down with her? Even so, if she lied again right after being berated for doing the same exact thing, would it be fair to Katherine? A myriad of thoughts ran through her head, and never once in her life has she been this indecisive about her next few words.

“I did.” Maggie announced as she entered the scene, her face looking as dejected as ever.

Katherine stared at Maggie in surprise, she felt so many things at the same time when that sentence was being said. The most prominent emotion in the mix was......anger.

“You......are you kidding me? You’re actually serious? You’ve been telling lies to me for a year while she knew all along? Am I just not that important to you? Answer me, Anne!” Katherine had enough of her cousin’s silence, opting to force an answer out of her. She was done living in a lie.

Silence.

Maggie didn’t know what to say. Anne was completely drowned in a sense of panic, did she not think of the consequences when she revealed her identity? Has she lost any resemblance of a sane thought? Was she wrong this whole time?

“......I’m leaving.” Katherine scoffed, before grabbing her choker and a jacket, “......please don’t follow me. I need some time to think.”

Catherine, renowned detective and godmother who is trying her best, stood at the driveway of journalist Jane Seymour’s home.

“Why are we here again?” Cathy asked as she exited a car.

“Jane asked for us to come. For dinner and for work related purposes.”

“You know, I’m still kind of intimidated by her since.....she’s technically my boss as of right now.”

“Only when you’re at work. Right now, just think of her as a friend, alright?”

“That.....doesn’t help me at all, but sure.” Cathy said as she cowered behind Catherine, who was currently knocking on the door.

The door opened a few seconds later, but the person on the other side wasn’t Jane. Actually, they looked similar, but still, not Jane.

“Detective Catherine! Jane said you’d be coming by, come in!” Joan welcomed the woman.

“Thank you, Joan. Is Jane here or is she out?” Catherine questioned, stepping into the house while doing so. Cathy followed her closely behind, “hi Joan.”

“She’s in the kitchen preparing dinner. Oh, and hi Cathy!” Joan waved excitedly at Cathy, who replied with a warm smile.

“Great, I’ll go find her then.” Catherine said, leaving the two at the doorway afterwards.

The two awkwardly stood there, occasionally glancing at each other while waiting expectantly for the other to say something.

“So......”

“Do you wanna....play a video game or something?”

“Sure, but you might want to remind me of the controls.”

Jane was cooking, but she wasn’t fairly good at it. Don’t worry though, the meal is.....edible at best.

“I hate cooking. Why do I torture myself with this?” Jane cursed to herself as she seasoned the food. What she didn’t realise was that someone was standing beside her, listening to her every word.

“Need some help?” Catherine offered, but didn’t know Jane was too focused in her work to notice her presence.

Jane jumped, dropping one of the plates she had been holding. Luckily, Catherine caught it just in time.

“Woah, careful there.” Catherine smirked, placing the plate back onto the nearest table.

“Didn’t realise you were there, sorry.” Jane spoke, scratching the back of her neck as her face turned slightly red.

“Do I really scare people that much? Is it because of my...... ‘vibe’? Is that the word? Sorry, I’m still kind of confused about these slang words.”

Jane bursted into laughter after hearing that sentence, almost crying tears of joy from the other’s question.

“No no, you used it right. Don’t apologise.” She assured the other after she calmed down from her sudden burst of joy.

“Ah.....alright then.” She said as she stepped back, “so why’d you want us to come over anyways?”

“Well.....Anna didn’t exactly tell me what happened last night in detail, so I thought you could tell me more about it.”

“Right, but why didn’t you just come to the scene yesterday? You could’ve asked the other inspectors at the scene?”

“Anna told me that you left immediately after the thief escaped when I called her, so I didn’t bother. Besides, I originally had a visitor.”

“Wait, you didn’t want to go because I left? Did you really want to see me or something?” Catherine smirked, teasing the woman at the other side of the kitchen.

“You were the leading detective of the case, don’t get any weird thoughts.” Jane returned the tease with a deadpan tone.

“Aw man, and here I thought you liked me.” Catherine said dramatically, putting a hand on her forehead, “oh how wrong I was.....”

“Platonically, I like you platonically.” Jane let out a little giggle.

They both continued their conversation, laughing several more times within their conversation.

“Hey, Joan?” Cathy looked up from her controller, trying to gain the attention from the other person in the room.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s Anna? I thought she lived here?”

“She had some work to catch up on, so she’s with Bessie and Maria at the agency.” Joan gave a straightforward response, then returned to the game.

“Ah, I see.” Cathy mumbled.

“I thought you two weren’t close? You’ve only met her for a few times?”

“No, I was just curious. I’ve never even had a proper conversation with her.”

As they continued to play, a shout came from the kitchen, notifying them that their dinner is ready.

“I didn’t think you were this good at the game? You’ve improved a lot since the last time you came over.” Joan sighed, turning off the console.

“Probably just luck. I haven’t played for a long time.” Cathy said, stretching her arms and straightening her back as she stood up.

“So, you two had fun?” Catherine asked the duo as they entered.

“I lost every game.” Joan complained as she took a seat.

“Like usual.” Jane joked under her breath.

“Hey! I heard that!” Joan jumped up, pointing aggressively at Jane.

Laughter filed the room as they began their meal, with Jane making a few puns along the way, making everyone at the table groan in response.

“Last week, she yelled ‘yeet’ as she threw something in the trash. I’ve been traumatised ever since that day.” Cathy recounted some of the events that happened lately while glaring at Jane.

“Sorry not sorry.” Jane snickered out.

“I don’t get why using slangs you normally use is so bad, Cathy.” Catherine sighed out with a puzzled expression on her face.

“I’m suddenly so glad you guys don’t visit often.” Joan mumbled out with a relieved look on her face.

“Oh come on! She’s trying her best!” Jane tried to defend her friend with a smug smile.

“You don’t get to defend her, you taught her those words!” Cathy accused the other, trying to get her to confess for her malicious deeds.

After a while of retelling stories and sharing some of their recent experiences, they soon finished their dinner and the four returned to their original activities. Jane and Catherine remained at the dining table, with Jane asking her some questions regarding their recent encounter with the phantom thief.

“What are your thoughts on that thief?”

“....what?”

“Just tell me about..... I don’t know, your theories? Speculations? Anything, really.”

“Um.... I’m not exactly sure. I know that they only made their first proper appearance last night because one of the guards managed to catch them red handed, so they’ve been quite meticulous for their activities for a year now. They were pretty theatrical, and they were actually impressively fit. I wouldn’t be shocked if they worked out, since they did jump around multiple rooftops without even stopping for breath. We didn’t receive any news about any accomplices, but I’m sure they must have at least one other person working with them.”

“Wow.....as expected from the great detective.” Jane applauded the other for their conjectures.

“It’s really nothing, I don’t really have any important clues about them for now, they’ve been quite smart about their actions up until now.”

“Really? They must be some sort of criminal mastermind if they managed to escape you for a year.”

“I’m sure they’ll slip up. They can’t escape forever.” Catherine spoke with a determined look.

“That’s the spirit.” Jane said as she formed a bright smile on her face.

“Ugh, how are you doing this?!” Joan grumbled as she dropped her controller onto the ground.

“Just admit you’re bad at the game.” Cathy said as she patted the other on their back.

“How??? Teach me your ways! Please!” Joan begged, grabbing onto one of Cathy’s sleeves.

“To be honest, I don’t-” Cathy tried to explain that it was really just luck, but she was interrupted by the sound of a doorbell, she stood up and started walking towards the door, “I’ll get it.”

Cathy reached the front door, thinking she’d meet Anna at the other side of the door. She turned the doorknob slowly, and her eyes widened.

Her pair of sapphire eyes met a pair of tearful, magenta ones.


	4. A Fated Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane gets an unexpected visitor and Anne regrets literally everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look! I didn’t use a song lyric for the title this time :D

Catherine looked at the figure standing outside who was sobbing quietly while appearing to be shocked at the person who answered the door.

“......Cathy?”

> Catherine Parr was an average university student, she considered herself to be not that outstanding in the sea of students, so she continued her beginning years without that much interaction. All the interactions she’s had before were just casual stuff like ordering a cup of beverage, borrowing a pen, normal things for a student.
> 
> Unlike Cathy, Katherine Howard made heads turn whenever she would enter a room. It’s hard not to gawk at her with her vibrant ponytail and choker. Parr had no interest or intention in even trying to become popular, her only goal was to survive through the next few years, so when on one peculiar day, the famed beauty tried to strike up a conversation with her, she nearly choked on excitement alone.
> 
> “Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?” Katherine waved her hand in front of the girl who seemed to be mesmerised by the novel she was reading to try and gain their attention. Cathy looked up, scrubbing her eyes to try and focus on the person. After she realised who was talking to her, her eyes widened, “uhhh....nope. No one is sitting here. Well, I’m sitting here, but except for me, nobody’s sitting here.”
> 
> “Awesome! Could I sit here then?” Katherine asked another question to make sure she wouldn’t be bothering the other, Cathy was too caught up in the thought that _the_ Katherine Howard was talking to her that misunderstood the question, she closed the book in her hands, mentally noting which page she was on and stood up from her seat, “oh yeah, sure, I was just about to leave anyways...”
> 
> “Wait! I just wanted to sit with you, not have you give me your seat!” The girl in pink immediately gestured for the other to sit back down.
> 
> “Oh....OH! I’m sorry, I kinda misinterpreted that.” Cathy apologised, putting some of her belongings back down, as well as sitting back onto the chair.
> 
> “It’s fine, I do that sometimes too.” Katherine assured the other, trying to make their exchange less awkward. She took a seat directly in front of Cathy, putting a cup on the table. What she didn’t realise was that her previous few actions alone made Cathy’s heart race.
> 
> “What’s your name? I’ve seen you around the campus a few times, but you always looked so focused on something, I didn’t want to bother.”
> 
> “I’m Catherine Parr, but you can call me Cathy.”
> 
> “Oh! My name is Catherine too! But with a K. I’m Katherine Howard, you can call me Kat if you want.”

“....Kat? What’s wrong?” Catherine asked the girl in front of here with a worried expression. She didn’t force the other to give a clear and immediate response, she thought that it would’ve been better to just let the other in for now. Besides, if Katherine went to Jane’s house, then that means she wasn’t looking for her, and she shouldn’t really pry into other people’s business.

What she didn’t expect was for the person standing outside to suddenly lunge themselves forward, pulling her into a tight hug. She stood still in shock, but loosened her shoulders after a few seconds. When she tried to move and say something, the other person holding her buried their head further into the embrace.

“Can we....maybe continue this inside? It’s cold outside.” Catherine tried to persuade the other into coming into the house, she wasn’t sure what her next course of action should be, but she couldn’t bear looking at her friend’s sorrowful eyes.

Katherine nodded slightly, moving her arms away from Cathy. The both of them stepped back inside after closing the door carefully, mindful of the noise that the door could make.

“Cath? Who’s there? Is it Anna?” Joan questioned, her voice coming from the living room. Catherine hesitated with her response, she turned to look at Kat, who nodded again to signify that she should tell the truth. Seeing the answer from Kat, she replied,

“It’s Kat. Katherine Howard.”

“This thief has been making my job so much harder. I haven’t ran that far for a while now.” The detective told Jane, taking a sip from her drink.

“I’m sure they’ve been everyone’s jobs harder. Several companies have been hiring more and more security guards throughout the past year, can’t imagine how much they’re spending just to keep away this phantom thief.”

“I swear, I’ll catch this thief no matter what.”

“Well, if you do manage to catch them, I’m sure I’ll write a great piece about the arrest.”

“Every one of your works has been great, I don’t think you can make them any better.”

“Oh really? I’m so flattered to hear that from you.” Jane said sarcastically, wearing a smirk on her face. The two had been chatting away for a while now, mainly about the thief, but they’re still enjoying their talk nonetheless. However, their chat soon ended when someone came rushing into the room, a hasty expression on their face.

“JANE! You gotta come over here, like right now!”

Katherine ended up being curled up in the middle of the couch, a mug filled with hot chocolate in her hands, warming her back up after she was strolling with no goal in mind in the middle of the cold streets. Cathy sat next to her, trying to figure out why Katherine was here in the first place. Jane tried to get some answers from her cousin, but Katherine wanted to just stay silent for a while, and soon Jane gave up, choosing to sit next to her instead, her hand stroking Katherine’s back in an effort to try to calm her down.

Joan and Catherine could only stand and watch from the sidelines since they didn’t know Katherine that well in order to comfort her. Joan has been hanging out with her for multiple Saturdays now, but she has never seen Katherine in this state before. Whenever Katherine came over, she’d have dinner with Joan, Anna and Jane, then spend some time with each of them respectively. Out of the three, Joan has spent the least time with her, while Jane having spent the most. Anna and Katherine have a sort of “friends” type of relationship, but she’s still not finished with her work back at the office.

“I should go, you can call me if you need anything.” Catherine told Jane, before turning to Cathy, “would you like to stay? I know you’ve spent some time with her during university.”

Cathy considered the options presented before her, but before she can even make up her mind, Jane interrupted her train of thought, “I’m sure you could stay the night if Kat wants you to, I could give you two some time to talk things out.”

After hearing Jane’s proposition, she tilted her head to look at Katherine, who looked like she was in deep thought. She soon nodded again, meaning that she wanted her to stay.

“Alright, I’ll leave you guys to it then.” Catherine notified the others, and then headed towards the door.

Joan offered to leave the three alone as well, and went upstairs to retreat into her room. That left Cathy, Jane and most importantly, Katherine on the couch.

“Are you sure we can stay the night?” Cathy asked Jane, who returned her query with a warm smile, “of course, there’s a spare room for you two to use.”

After that exchange, the three of them stayed in the same position for a while, with the two at both sides of the couch occasionally glancing at Katherine to make sure she’s still okay. Apart from the checking they did with Kat, they seemed to be finally resting peacefully. All of a sudden, Jane had a revelation, and left the two saying that she would return later with the intent to give them some time to talk.

“.....Kat? I know that you want some time before you can talk about it, but just know that we’ll be here when you’re ready.”

“I....I want to talk about it. Really, I do. But it’s just..... too difficult.”

“Take all the time you need, I’ll listen to anything you want to say if it helps.”

“Maybe...... could we just talk about random things for now? Maybe it’ll help clear my mind.”

“Sure, it’s been a while since we’ve talked.”

“So..... what have you been up to?”

“Let’s see.... after I’ve graduated, I spent some time searching for jobs and just...... writing? After a while, my godmother said that she knew a friend who would be interested in taking me in. That friend was Jane.”

“Ah, so you’ve been working for my cousin for a while now?”

“Sort of, it’s only been a few months.”

“How is she when she’s working? I’ve honestly never seen that side of her yet.”

“She’s surprisingly nice. I originally thought she’d be really serious, turns out I just assumed.”

“Um... I find it kinda weird that your name is the same as your godmother though? Wouldn’t people mix you two up?”

“That’s why I said you could call me Cathy. Jane still mixes us up sometimes, it’s hilarious.”

“Good thing my name starts with a K, or else she’d mix us up even more.” Katherine sighed, but Cathy heard a slight giggle at the end of her sentence. The two continued to ramble on, mostly just random things and stuff they’ve been doing after university. Katherine suggested the talk since she wanted to distract herself from her argument with Anne yesterday, but it ended up lifting her spirits up as well. Of course, Cathy noticed it too, but didn’t want to bring it up and ruin the moment.

“Wow, it’s been like, years since we’ve spent a night like this. I kinda miss it.” Katherine smiled, memories of their nights out during their time at university came floating back into her mind.

“I was super nervous when you first started to talk to me, I thought I was being a nuisance or something.”

“Really? I just thought you seemed lonely and wanted to be friends.”

“I was probably just overthinking then, I guess.”

“You definitely were. Remember spitting out your water when I smiled in your direction?”

“Please don’t remind me, that was embarrassing as hell.”

“The list goes on, that isn’t the most embarrassing moment you’ve had, for example, you were-”

“Alright let’s not mention that ever again!” Cathy quickly cut the other off with her face turning red, Katherine chuckled even more at her reaction.

As the night goes on, the two never got bored of their conversation, thinking up new topics and laughing along the way. Soon enough, the thought of yesterday’s events slowly faded out of Katherine’s mind and the both of them eventually fell asleep on the couch.

When Anna finally got off of work and returned home, she was shushed by Jane, who was patiently waiting for her return. Jane pointed towards the couch, which cleared up Anna’s confusion. A few pillows were gently placed under the two and a large blanket was used to cover the duo sleeping blissfully.

Actually, not all of Anna’s questions were answer. For instance, the question of why Cathy and Kat are here. However, she could save that for tomorrow, since they didn’t want to accidentally wake them up.

Anne stood on the roof of her apartment building, with her body perching on the railing of the rooftop.

“Anne? I know you’re worried about Katherine, but you need to rest. You haven’t slept for a day now.” Maggie said as she approached Anne.

“I’m not tired. And even if I am tired, I can’t sleep knowing my cousin is out there.”

“Maybe she’s with Jane? Even though you two don’t get along, you can’t deny the fact that she cares about Katherine just as much as you.”

“But what if she hates me? What if she never comes back? What do I do now?”

“I get that you are still stressed out. I am too, but I’m sure she’d return, she’s the only family you have left, and she knows that-”

“That’s exactly why she won’t come back. She’s my only true family and I’ve lied to her. I’ve been lying to her for a whole year. Would you forgive your family if they’ve been forcing you to live in a lie for the past year? I’d be pissed! She has every right to be pissed at me! Don’t you see how much I’ve screwed up?!”

Maggie was taken aback by Anne’s response, she was partly to blame for all of this, but Anne sounds like she’s only blaming herself. Was there a way to fix this? Did she ruin her best friend’s life by helping her? Tears were running down the phantom thief’s face, the seemingly unshakable thief was crying because of her.

“I’m sorry.”

“......this isn’t your fault, why are you apologising?”

“This isn’t all your responsibility either, we both know that I’ve helped you every time, you shouldn’t take the blame all by yourself.”

“But I’m the one who’s been lying blatantly to her face. You’re not.”

“......let’s just.... rest? Please? We’ll find out how we can fix this.” Maggie changed the topic of the conversation again, hoping to convince the other to at least rest first.

“.....fine, but I’m going out to find her tomorrow.”

Cathy woke up the next day with something heavy on her chest, her initial reaction of this was, of course, confusion. She looked down to find Kat laying on her, still sleeping and had her arms wrapped around Cathy. She glowing smile found itself on her face, but the moment was instantly ruined when she heard a sound similar to someone snapping a picture on their phone.

“Wait I didn’t set my phone to vibrate-” Jane realised her mistake, but she managed to take a picture of the moment anyways, it’s just that now Cathy knows she has taken it.

“Really?” Cathy sighed with an unamused tone.

“At least you can’t stop me now.” Jane teased with a proud grin. Cathy didn’t understand what she meant, but when she tried to get up, she found herself stuck in that position until Katherine woke up, “told you so.”

“What’s all the commotion about?” Anna arrived at the scene, but her question was answered after she found Cathy trapped on the couch.

“Awwwww that’s so cute!” Anna cooed at the sight, but when Jane told her that took some pictures, she stopped and ran over to see.

“Can you guys like, not do that right now?” Cathy tried to protest, but she soon stayed silent after she noticed her sentence had made Kat shift slightly.

“I’ll make breakfast, she’ll probably wake up when she smells it, you think you can last that long?”

Cathy continued to lay there and nodded to answer the question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment and ask about the au!


	5. Close Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cathy discovers more about the cousins and then proceeds to escape a potential crime scene with Anna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might’ve made the title a pun.....this is the best I can do, alright? It’s either this or a lyric XD

The smell of bacon being cooked wafted into the living and soon reached the duo laying on the couch. Catherine was tremendously grateful for the smell, because it woke up the person sleeping on top of her, finally granting her freedom.

“You sure slept well.” She told Katherine as the both of them got off of the couch. Kat, living up to her nickname, was stretching her arms, her form mimicking a, you guessed it, cat.

“Sorry for sleeping.....on you? Wow that felt weird to say.” She murmured the last of the sentence to herself. The other person of the duo began to tidy the couch back up, folding the blanket back up into proper shape and placing the pillows on top of it.

“Breakfast might take a while since there’s so many of us, you wanna maybe go take a walk or something? My legs feel sore.” Catherine informed Kat, who was trying to peek into the kitchen to see how the meal is coming along. She was startled by Catherine placing a hand on her shoulder, who immediately apologised.

“Sure! We can walk around the backyard, they might take a while.” Katherine agreed, accompanying her expression with a thumb pointing back into the kitchen, “Jane isn’t too well-versed in the art of cooking.”

“Then we better get out before we also get dragged into that mess.”

That’s how they ended up in the backyard of the house, mainly just strolling around and chatting, as always.

“Hey, Cathy?”

“Yeah?”

“I..... want to talk about what happened.” Katherine spoke hesitantly, she decided to choose her next few sentences carefully.

“Are you sure? You don’t need to rush.”

“Yep. I’m sure.” She replied, sitting down on the ground, then patting the space next to her to gesture for the other to sit down as well.

“Before I begin,” she began to explain, but then turned around to make sure no one else was in the area, “don’t tell anyone else about this.”

“Sure. I won’t tell anybody. Not even Jane.”

“Thank you. Now then.....”

“You know my cousin, Anne, right?”

“Yeah, my godmother talks about her sometimes, I really can’t imagine you guys being related though. Especially with the whole Anne and Jane situation.”

“Yep, kind of unbelievable, but I care about them both, they just don’t.....really interact much anymore now except for when it’s about me.”

“At least they can look each other in the face when it’s about you.”

“Anyways, on the night before yesterday, I found out that Anne has been.....” Katherine stopped abruptly in the middle of her explanation, but after she finally made up her mind on the matter, she made her final decision on the matter, “lying to me. For a whole year.”

“.....holy shit.” Was the response Cathy could only give to Katherine’s last sentence.

“I don’t know why, but she decided that it would be better to lie to me.” She purposefully omitted the part about Henry and the whole phantom thief stuff. After some thought, she believed that she should have a more proper conversation with Anne before she said anything more on the phantom thief business instead of just yelling at her. Although her anger would’ve been justified, she still thought that she was being too irrational that night.

Moreover, Catherine unintentionally gave Kat a bit more advice on her next course of action without knowing anything about the situation.

“Well....maybe she kept a secret from you because she believed that it would hurt you?”

“What?”

“Maybe, just maybe, you haven’t given her enough time to give you a reason behind her actions. I’m not trying to defend her for her lies, it sounded like you were really emotionally damaged from it, but sometimes people.....do things that seem unnecessary, or even bad in order to um..... care about others?” Cathy struggled to think of a sophisticated enough response, and just chose to speak her mind at that moment.

“Is that.....what you really think I should do? I should hear her out?”

“Sort of like that. I might not be too experienced in your type of problems, but I know that Anne really does care about you. Based on that thought, is there really a motive for her to lie to you for no reason at all? People care about others in different ways, for example....” Cathy trailed off, trying to think of an example to explain her reasoning, one specific idea came up, but she couldn’t believe that it was actually helpful in the end,

“my godmother has been trying to make me cheer up by learning slang words and memes from Anna and Jane. Although it does make me cringe at the thought of her saying those terms, but we can’t deny that she’s doing it originally with the intent to make me happier, can we?” She said, still not wanting to admit that her godmother’s actions could help her explain something this serious.

“Ah....that makes some sense....but why that example?” Katherine let out a chuckle at the end of her question.

“Look, that was the only thing that I could think of at the time, I still don’t like hearing them.”

“Was I too harsh on her back then when I yelled at her? I was too furious at the time, I didn’t think of what she was feeling...”

“Depends on how bad the lie had affected you, I’m not the best at giving these sorts of advice, so take it with a pinch of salt.”

“Still.....thanks for listening to me. I think I just needed to let my emotions out and calm down before talking to her again.”

At the same time that this heartfelt conversation was happening, the kitchen of Jane Seymour’s residence was an absolute disaster.

“Anna, please help me out here, I’m gonna burn the house down at the rate I’m going.” Jane pleaded for the other person in the kitchen to help, but they refused, and instead explained to Jane, “I can’t keep on helping you, you need to learn how to do this somehow!”

“.....I’m giving the burnt ones to you.” Jane threatened Anna, and that was enough for Anna to finally offer some assistance.

In the middle of their cooking, the sound of a ringing phone reached the room, which sounded familiar to Jane.

“Take over for me, I gotta take this.” Jane instructed the other, then walked out to find her phone. After following the source of the sound, she picked up her phone from armchair next to the couch. She scanned the screen of the phone, then blinked twice to confirm the caller, because she thought she was delusional when she saw that the caller was Anne Boleyn. She wanted to just decline the call and return to her regular business, but a sudden urge compelled her to press on the ‘accept’ button instead.

She wanted to know what happened to Katherine Howard.

“Seymour? I know that you’re probably just going to scoff at me and hang up, but could you please tell me where Kitty is?” This was not what Jane was expecting when she received the call. She thought that Anne would just say something along the lines of ‘give me back my cousin or I’ll murder you’, but instead of that, she got Anne begging at the other side of the line for just the location of Katherine.

“You sound different, do you really want to know?”

“Just tell me,” Anne pleaded again, but this time adding something that both of them didn’t think would ever escape her mouth,

“Please.”

Jane couldn’t even begin to form a coherent sentence after hearing Anne’s desperate words, but after clearing her mind, she returned Anne’s request with a demand.

“If you want me to tell you, then you need to tell me what happened between you two first.”

Anne knew all too well that Jane would try to stick her nose in this, but she prepared an answer to this long before she decided to dial Jane’s number.

“Look, I know she’s at your house. I’m willing to tell you if I can at least see her.”

“I’m not accepting this unless Kat is ready to see you again.”

“Then just put the damn call on hold and ask her already.”

Jane walked around the house to search for Kat and Cathy, then ended up finding them in the backyard.

Everyone who knew Jane Seymour had conflicting opinions on the woman. At first glance, they’d say that she would seem kind and caring, but to her closer relatives, she doesn’t seem all that great. Take Anne as an example, after a very unfortunate series of events, she’s grown to hate her cousin, even going as far to warn Katherine of her. Well, she gave up on doing so after she insisted of going to visit when Anne and Maggie began their thievery, but she’s still wary of her.

Katherine has her doubts, Jane remained a mystery to her. Every visit of hers didn’t help Katherine in understanding Jane in the slightest, she took her cousin’s advice in not trusting her every word, but that’s all about to change now that she discovered Anne’s secret.

“Kat?” She tried to get the pink’s attention, then worked up the courage to ask her cousin the question,

“Would you be fine if Anne came for a visit? You don’t have to go back with her yet, but she would like to at least check up on you.”

Katherine jumped at the question, she wasn’t mentally prepared to receive such a blunt question. Cathy turned away when Jane came over, but she still heard the question loud and clear. Now that she has some insight on the three cousin’s situation, she understood why Kat would be so overwhelmed by that request.

“W-wait, what? She wants to come here?”

“Only if you want her to.”

Jane soon returned to the phone call after getting an answer from her cousin, Anne perked up when she heard the person on the other side return, not because she wanted to hear her, just because she wants to know the response she’s going to get.

“Come over at 5, Kat said that she wants to speak to you again about that argument you two had before.” Jane told the other, but she left a final message to them before ending the call.

“I’ll be awaiting your answer.”

Breakfast was a tad bit uncomfortable to say the least.

Katherine wasn’t looking forward to seeing Anne again so soon. She wanted to get ready first before she’d talk to her, but now she has to think of what she wanted to say, what she wanted to convey. Most importantly, she didn’t want a repeat of that night. She ate her meal silently, only giving a few one word answers when she was asked something.

Jane felt guilty for inviting Anne over so quickly, but curiosity got the best of her. She saw an opportunity and she took it, it really was just that simple in her head. She tried her best to calm Katherine down by changing the topic of the conversation whenever it started to stray too close to the events that took place on Saturday night. A few worried looks from Joan and Anna came their way, but she tried her best to ease their concerns.

Cathy tried to eat like she normally would, but she couldn’t stop worrying about what’s about to happen. She would sneak in a few glances at Katherine’s direction to make sure the other was still alright, but stopped when Anna asked her a question,

“So Parr, do you need me to drive you back? Or maybe to the agency so you can go home with the captain?”

That reminded her of something, she moved her hand to her pocket in search of something, but was dejected when she found out only her phone was in her pocket. She had forgotten her keys.

> “Do you have to always check in on me when I’m working?” Cathy asked the person driving, who looked back at her through the rear-view mirror of the vehicle.
> 
> “Can’t I be a little worried about how my goddaughter is doing? Besides, it’s nice to get a chance to talk to Jane.”
> 
> “So you use me as an excuse to talk to my boss?”
> 
> “No, I use talking to Jane as an excuse to see how you’re doing.”
> 
> “Keep telling that to yourself.” Cathy sighed as she fiddled with the objects near her, she reached down to her pocket to pull out her phone, but she realised that she had forgotten to bring something as well.
> 
> “You brought your keys, right?”
> 
> “Of course, I always check before I leave. Unlike a certain someone.”

“Could I go to the agency with you? I forgot my keys so I’ll have to go with my godmother.”

“Sure, we’ll head out when we’ve finished breakfast then.” Cathy was somewhat caught off guard by this statement, she didn’t think they had woken up so late. That’s why she anxiously checked the time on her phone, but it was still quite early in the morning, so why did they have to leave so prematurely? When she looked up to give a puzzled look to Anna, she found that the person she was seeking for had left their seat. She turned to Joan, who didn’t exactly answer her questions. Instead, Joan also quickly devoured her plate of food and left the table.

She knew that she can’t get the answers to her question if she kept on prolonging her meal, so she consumed the rest of her meal rapidly as well, leaving the two cousins at the dining table.

When she got outside of the house, she found Anna leaning on the side of her car, swinging the car keys around to act like she’s playing with them. As Cathy got closer to her, she peeked around to see if anyone is near. After her cautious checking, she pulled Cathy’s collar to get closer to the other.

“Ow! What was that for?” Cathy exclaimed, releasing Anna’s grip on her clothes.

“Not so loud, we don’t want them hearing this, okay?” Anna whispered into the other’s ear, earning her an even more dazed look.

“We both know that those three cousins aren’t exactly buddy-buddy with each other, so it’s best if we just leave them to it before the house becomes a crime scene.” She explained to the confused girl, who began to realise what she was talking about.

“Wait, it’s really that bad?” Cathy asked back in disbelief.

“Really. I don’t know what happened with Kat and Boleyn, but knowing all of their views on each other, it’s obvious that whatever’s about to happen is most likely not going to be pretty.” After her reply, Anna opened the door to her car and invited Cathy inside, hurriedly starting the car in order to escape what’s about to happen.

The car ride wasn’t filled with too much important conversations, just your average exchange between two almost strangers. Sure, Cathy occasionally visited their house with Catherine, but the two of them didn’t really say much to each other. The both of them knew each other as ‘just a friend from work’, then that’s it. In Anna’s case, she could also refer to Cathy as ‘her boss’s goddaughter’, but that might seem way too formal for the two of them.

For a while, the two of them were just too nervous to talk to each other. After all, it takes a lot of audacity to interact with the precious goddaughter of your captain, if she made one wrong move, then she could kiss her organs goodbye. Eventually, Cathy finally made an attempt to say something to the other, but their relationship after that still wasn’t close enough for them to consider the other as a friend.

After the seemingly lengthy ride to the workplace of Catherine Aragon, the two exited the car to enter. Cathy was quite tense, since she didn’t go to the place quite often, the aura of the place initially scared her off, but she had no choice now.

Anna noticed the other seeming a little skittish, so she did something that she thought could calm them down.

“You can wait outside if you want, I’m sure I can just ask her for the key.” She questioned the other, who was broken from their trance. Cathy perked up at their sudden remark, but after some thought, she returned the gesture, “I think I’m good. Let’s go.”

The office door opened, revealing Anna and Cathy at the door. Two of the employees turned at the sound of the door opening, then approached the two at the door.

“Parr, these are Maria and Bessie.” Anna introduced them to her, then Cathy added onto the introduction, “you can just call me Cathy.”

“Right. Nice to meet you, Cathy.” The woman on the right side, which Anna called Maria told Cathy, then promptly turned her attention back to Anna. Maria pulled her colleague over, which left Cathy with Bessie.

“You’re here to see the captain, right?”

“Um, yeah. I just need something from her.”

“Oh! She’s occupied at the moment, could you wait for a while?”

“......sure.” Cathy replied reluctantly, but soon accepted that she can’t leave for now. Bessie gave her a spot to sit, then left to return to her work. Cathy sat there, fidgeting with the zipper on her clothing, it helped distract her from what’s happening and calm her down, which worked in the three investigators’ favour.

“How the hell are we going to the captain about what happened yesterday?” Bessie asked worriedly as she approached the two, who was stuck in the same problem as her.

“Well, it was vital information, so we need to tell her about it no matter how much it’ll affect her.” Maria sighed disappointingly. The other two sighed with her, knowing how the information they acquired will screw them up. Anna took this chance to get herself out of this problem by running off, yelling her blessings to the unfortunate soul who has to break the news to Aragon along the way.

Bessie also didn’t hesitate to escape, doing the same as Anna as she ran, leaving Maria to suffer alone.

“I hope you two know that I’m coming back to haunt you both after this.”

“Good luck!” The two yelled back.

A knock at the door gained the attention of Catherine Aragon, who told the person outside to come into her office.

“Maria? Is there something you need?”

“No. It’s just that we’ve received news from someone yesterday.”

“About the phantom thief?”

“Yes.”

“Why was I not notified about this as soon as we got this information?” Catherine asked Maria with a hint of anger in the question. Maria struggled on wording her next response, but she replied anyways to avoid being interrogated further,

“The person who reported this was......Henry Tudor.”


	6. Everyone Wears A Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The three cousins take some time to talk things out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled a little for this chapter since I’m not the best at writing heartfelt dialogue and just emotions in general XD

The sound of the running tap and the dishes being scrubbed clean is the only noise left in the home of Jane Seymour. Katherine remained silent, sitting alone while tapping the table repeatedly, the tapping soon forming into something that sounds like a song. The running water was somewhat calming, the two could just listen to it and avoid any other interaction until Anne arrives, but to the other’s surprise, Katherine began to break the ice.

“Why would you willingly let Anne come over here? I know that you asked me before letting her come, but this doesn’t seem like something you would do,” she glared menacingly at the back of the other person in the room before continuing, “did she blackmail you or bribe you? It’s gotta be one of these.”

“You could say that it was an exchange.” Jane answered the question as she continued to wash the dishes, not even sparing a second to look back at Katherine.

“At least you had the decency to ask me first before accepting the offer.” She replied and stopped the glaring, looking elsewhere so she won’t seem insane.

“The one I dislike is Anne, not you,” Jane placed the last dish onto the dish rack next to her to leave it to dry, then turned the knob on the sink. The sound of the running water faded away, leaving their conversation to be audible, she then added onto her sentence, “I’m not that disrespectful to people’s privacy. Don’t assume that just because I report news for a living.”

“I didn’t say that because of your occupation, rather because of what Anne told me.” Katherine tried to explain, but stopped when the other invited them to something else.

“Let’s have a proper conversation then. I’ll answer anything you ask me truthfully,” she told the doubtful pink girl, “well, I know that you won’t believe me, but I’ll tell you the truth about everything. That’s the least I can do for letting Anne over so suddenly.”

Jane led the other back to the couch they had previously spent a night sleeping on. She gestured for Katherine to sit on it while she herself took a seat on the armchair facing the couch.

“How much time until she gets here?”

“5 hours.” According to Jane, Katherine had approximately five hours to clear up everything Anne had told her, whether it was the lies she told within the year or the events that led them to this situation. Anything the other told her was left to her interpretation, and she would have to use every second in these five hours to get enough information she needs to determine what she should say to Anne.

Katherine took a deep breath, then started her questioning with the most prominent question she’s had before that Anne refused to answer,

“I want to know what happened between you two. Start when Anne was still with Henry.”

Jane expected this question from a mile away, she knew Anne didn’t tell Katherine what happened, and that it only made Katherine even more curious about knowing the truth. Her relationship with Katherine was certainly an odd one, the two never had problems with each other, but Anne largely influenced how they viewed each other. When Anne tried to persuade Katherine into not visiting Jane, she insisted that the woman was faking her kindness, that she was ruthless in getting what she wanted.

Unbeknownst to Katherine, Anne had purposefully exaggerated her description. Well, even if the persuasion didn’t work in the end, one quote from Anne always stuck to Katherine, she just didn’t know that it applied to the person who said it as well.

_“Everyone wears a different type of mask, Kitty. You think you know someone, but in the end, that’s all just some bullshit facade.”_

Literally or figuratively, Anne did wear a mask when she was with Katherine, she just didn’t know until now.

“Kat, even though I don’t like Anne all that much, I won’t deny that she’s a decent person.”

“.....I’m surprised you’re the one saying that.”

“I said that I would tell you the truth, didn’t I? It’s true that we both despise each other, but ultimately, I was the one at fault.” Jane told Kat, who was still trying to process everything she just said. Even Jane herself couldn’t believe that she would utter those words out.

“I was blinded by my emotions. I didn’t give a damn about what would happen to Anne and I stole-”, she stopped in the middle of her explanation, leaving out the person’s name so she wouldn’t have to go through all her memories of them again, “I stole him from Anne.”

“You took him away from her because you loved him?” Katherine noticed the abrupt stop in her sentence, then decided that it’d be best if she didn’t mention that person again.

“No. I did it for someone else.”

In Katherine’s mind, she desperately wanted to ask who this mysterious individual was, she searched through her head, trying to find someone who Jane would risk her relationship and future for. Someone who she knew for so long, someone who was also involved in this, and in the end, one person came up in her mind.

_Oh._

“Are you not going to ask who that person is? I will tell you if that’s what you want.”

“.....I think I already know who that is.”

“And you’re so sure that you don’t need confirmation?”

“Just tell me what happened to Anne after that.”

“She was....crushed. I don’t know if she really loved him, but even if she didn’t, she had to keep up their relationship so their family could gain more status and wealth. After he had....ended things with her, her family cut off all contact with her. She never saw her brothers and sisters after that.”

“.....and you were the one who set all of this into motion?”

“.....I had a part in it. Yes. I was the one who made him lose interest in her, I was the one who made her life spiral downwards ever since that....and I am the one she hates now.”

Every single bit of information Jane had just told Katherine, every single piece of it was true, it made her heartache at the thought of how broken Anne must have been, but even with that Katherine knew all too well now how yelling and screaming out her emotions won’t help. It’s already in the past, and she had to handle this information carefully.

Of course, hearing that triggered some sense of rage in Katherine, her hands tightened so much that her white knuckles were visible to Jane, who took it as a sign of anger. Still, the conversation she had with Cathy was still lingering in the back of her mind.

Silence was all that was left in the room. Jane stared down onto the ground, not even bothering to defend herself after her explanation of what happened. Katherine soon spoke again, but it wasn’t what Jane had expected.

“Did you know that would happen?” Katherine asked, the advice from Cathy coming back up into her head. Even though it was too late for her argument with Anne, she still had a chance with Jane.

“Out of all the things you can ask, all the insults you can throw my way, that’s what you ask me?”

“I.....I’m tired of doing so. What I’ve done to Anne obviously didn’t help the both of us, so I’m not doing it again.”

“I didn’t know why Anne pursued him to begin with, but now I know that it was mainly because of her family. I didn’t think of the consequences of my actions, I just knew that I wanted to make her suffer the same fate she had made her suffer. The heartbreak, the sorrow, I just didn’t know she would meet one even worse than that.” Jane answered the question truthfully again, mentioning the mysterious individual again.

“Do you regret it?”

“Of course I do, but that’s too late now isn’t it?”

“That’s......” Katherine wanted to respond, but nothing could come out of her mouth after that.

“So, was Anne right about me?”

“Well....I think she was definitely right about some parts,” Katherine answered the question this time, and after that response, Jane could only nod in response, but Katherine continued, “but I don’t think she got it completely correct either.”

“Oh? You really think so, after all that I’ve done?” Jane tried to reason with Katherine, the pain she’s withholding was noticeable in her tone.

“Your kindness isn’t a facade. If you didn’t care about her, you won’t be here, telling me about the truth. You said you regret it, didn’t you?”

“But-”

“No. I know you’re not lying,” she rebutted her reply without any second thoughts, adding in something that confused Jane, “I’ve been lied to so many times now, I should know what’s true and what’s not.”

“Then....thank you for understanding.”

After the reveal of what happened to Anne and the apology of Jane, Katherine suddenly realised what she wanted to say had already been decided. Jane just helped her to figure out what she’ll say to Anne.

“Kat? Are you....okay? I know I’m in no place to judge, but you seem like you have something on your mind as well.”

“Thanks. I don’t want to change the focus of what we just said, but it kinda helped me figure out what I’ll say to Anne.”

“Yeah.... I know something happened between you two as well, but this isn’t the time for me to ask you questions.” Jane looked at the clock hanging on the wall, then counted how much time they had left until Anne arrives.

“I think I already know enough about what happened between you two, I can figure out the rest,” Katherine spoke more softly, “but I still want to know why you’d do all that for her.”

Soon after the two had calmed down from the questioning, they realised that it was soon approaching 5. They had twenty minutes left, but knowing how Anne is, they probably only have around ten minutes left.

“If you regret your actions so much, why don’t you try making amends and fix the relationship between you two?” Katherine asked the other suddenly, but that question was actually meant for them both. She thought over the things she has done over and over again, but she still hasn’t taken the initiative to change.

“Since when were you suddenly so good at these types of problems?”

“Let’s just say...Cathy helped me clear my head last night.”

“Sounds like she was pretty helpful. And uh.....to answer your question, I really want to talk to Anne about it, but you know how she is...”

“What you’re saying is, if I can help you to make her listen, you’d try to atone for your actions?”

“If you can, then sure. I don’t even know how you’ll manage to do that now with you and Anne’s relationship being on the rocks like this.”

“Like what I said to you, I’ll try to make amends and fix the relationship between us two.”

After that, the doorbell of the house rang, disrupting the tranquil moment they had, and making Katherine suddenly tense up.

Jane sat up and headed towards the door, but not before giving Katherine some last bits of ‘encouragement’, “if you can really fix whatever happened between you two, then maybe I have some hope with Anne after all.”

The door opened to reveal Anne Boleyn looking unbelievably apprehensive.

A simple “hi” was all that Jane could greet the other with. Anne was slightly wary of Jane’s words, but before she could shake it off as just her being annoying and bitchy, Jane continued to shock Anne even more.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened. Just.....get in there and uh....good luck.” Jane told Anne with an understanding expression, then proceeded to head upstairs to her room.

That left a single thought in Anne’s head: what in the world did Katherine do to Jane?

Anne cautiously wandered inside the living room, only to find a composed Katherine sitting on the couch. She walked in front of her so they could look at each other directly as the exchange began.

“I’m sorry-” the both of them said at the exact same time, stunning each other simultaneously.

“You can go first,” Katherine told Anne.

“Alright....” she replied, but then had to calm herself down again, because she just realised Katherine didn’t seem angry at her anymore, or maybe she’s just good at hiding it.

“I know that I fucked up. I wanted to be a good cousin, but in the end, I just ended up being as shitty as-” she stopped abruptly after she realised that she shouldn’t really bring Jane up again after the person in question suddenly showed some sort of kindness towards her, thinking again for a better way to word her apology.

“I just want you to know that I’m sorry about what I’ve done. I was too focused on my own damn ego that I didn’t even think about how I’m hurting you. I....I want to try to at least redeem myself, please? I can’t stand not having my cousin by my side. The girl who stuck by me no matter what. I know that it’s too late for that.....but...”

“Annie.....I’m sorry too. I’m sorry for not understanding your side of the story. I just jumped to a conclusion, and I regret yelling at you before I even began to seriously comprehend why you did what you did in the first place with a clear mind. I know that you didn’t want me to know because you thought it’d affect my safety, I just...had to think everything through again.”

The two looked like they were trying extremely hard to hold back tears at this point. The both of them could easily continue, but they both understood that the other had forgiven them. As tears began running down Anne’s face again, she put up both her arms with a smile, gesturing for Katherine to hug her. She quickly got the hint and leapt into the arms of her dear cousin.

In the end, everything the two had prepared to say to the other was forgotten, everything they’ve said was the first thing on their mind. No scripts were written, no rehearsing was done, but it was still enough.

The two remained in that position while sobbing quietly, but they didn’t mind it at all. No, they felt like time slowed down, allowing them to enjoy the warm embrace for even longer. They didn’t know what they’ll do next, but they knew that they would support each other no matter what happens next.

There’s one rule that none of them are allowed to break ever again though, and that’s for them to stop lying to each other again.


	7. Everything Leads Back To Henry Tudor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna and Cathy get to spend some time with each other while Katherine tries to understand Anne.

Maria exited the office of her boss, then approached her two heavy-hearted coworkers.

“We should give her some space, let’s go out.” She notified Anna and Bessie, who looked at each other, then turned to face Cathy, who was still waiting patiently. She observed her environment, taking a mental note of what was inside the workplace of her godmother while trying not to look like she was snooping around.

“Cathy? The captain isn’t available at the moment, let’s go and just....walk around for a bit first?” Anna stated, standing next to the girl who was still focused on surveying the area. Her face immediately changed from a peaceful expression to a somewhat disappointed one.

“Um....sure? Is she still busy with the phantom thief case?”

“You can say that.” The investigator confirmed her suspicions, then led her back to the outside of the agency. She looked around, thinking of a place she could take the other to kill some time. The person besides her was still not sure of what they were doing. She wished she could just go back inside and wait, but Anna insisted on them going out.

The sun shined bright on her face, causing her to squint her eyes in order to avoid being blinded by the scorching sun in the sky. She covered her eyes using her left arm, while pushing the other person with her farther away from their original spot to a place where those literal death rays couldn’t reach.

“You don’t go out often, huh?” Anna mocked the other, who glared menacingly back at her, “I go out, don’t just assume.”

Anna laughed at Cathy’s attempt at defending her honour, then looked around the area to find something to do. A wall filled with posters and extravagant advertisements caught her eyes, which made her move towards it as soon as the sight of it appeared in her field of vision.

“Wait! I take it back I don’t actually go out that often! Don’t leave me here!” Cathy yelled out in a panic, she began to run in the same direction, but failed to catch up. She soon got herself to reach Anna again, but not before panting and wiping off the sweat on herself.

“Why did you do that? I thought we were just outside to wait?”

“No, we’re outside to give the captain some space to think. Now come check out these posters! Is there something you want to do?” Anna cleared up Cathy’s confusion once again, then pointed towards the abundance of papers on the wall. Anna had an incredibly bright smile on her face, it’s metaphorical light could’ve shined as bright as the sun which nearly blinded Cathy, she watched as Anna move from one poster to another, trying tosearch for the perfect activity for the both of them.

“You seem ecstatic...” Cathy tried to tease the woman back, but it didn’t affect the other at all. Anna ignored Cathy’s mumble and kept on showing her the different variety of things they could do while they waited, it took them quite a while to pick, but one of them made Cathy interested. She picked up the piece of paper from Anna’s hand, then inspected it thoroughly, reading the lines on the poster slowly.

Anna peeked at the piece Cathy was holding, she was curious to see which one of these activities could catch the girl’s eye. Once she got a good look at it, she returned to looking for one that she wanted to do.

“There’s a market around the corner, maybe we can head there.” Cathy suggested, then showed the piece of paper she had in her hand to Anna for her to read, but she just put the poster back to its original spot since she already read it.

“Didn’t expect you to like these sorts of stuff.” Anna snorted, then put everything back to its place.

“Well, you did say that we needed to waste time. Walking around a market seems like a time-waster.”

“Whatever you say...” Anna sighed before leading Cathy to said market.

The two wandered around the myriad of stalls, examining the objects placed on display while chatting.

“Do you think she’d like this?” Cathy asked Anna for her opinion, her hand holding a pair of earrings, the person she’s referring to being Catherine Aragon.

“Um....am I really the best person to ask about these kinds of stuff? Maybe you should ask Jane? I mean, maybe you should just trust your gut, you’re her goddaughter after all.”

Cathy held the pair of jewellery closer, examining every single detail on the pair of earrings. She ended up putting the piece back down, sighing as she put it down.

“She’s been acting odd ever since the phantom thief’s appearance, so I thought I could get her a gift to take her mind off of work.....turns out this is harder than I thought.”

“It’s the thought that counts.” Anna assured Cathy, who was still deep in thought, trying to think of the perfect gift for her godmother.

The two continued along one of the pathways of the market, but then they soon reached the section that Anna thought the other would anticipate the most.

“Geez, this place is.....” she tried to think of a proper adjective to describe the place, but no words came out in the end, the two just stood in awe, staring at the mountains of books, ranging from biographies, novels, nonfiction books....any genre of books.

Still, in the presence of the sea of books, Cathy acted normally. This is weird. Anyone who knew her would think that her face would show sparkles of joy by now, but nothing happened. Not even a glint of happiness.

“I thought you came here for this place?” Anna asked the other, who just looked bored out of her mind.

“Everyone always assumes I would like a place like this, I’m not really that obsessed with books, you know? I have a life outside of this stuff.” She complained, and began walking past the pile and pile of novels. Anna followed suit, and the two quickly left the area.

“Is there...something wrong?” Anna questioned the girl who continued to pick up her pace. Cathy turned around to face Anna, then tried to explain, “...no, it’s just that....I want to know what’s going on with my godmother.”

“Ah....” was all Anna could respond with, she knew that Cathy was still concerned about why they had too leave so suddenly, but then she added onto her answer to try and explain what has been happening,

“It’s just that....we got a report from someone yesterday, they claimed that they saw the thief and that they attacked them....”

“That’s it? Then why do we need to give her some space?”

“That person who reported the thief was....Henry.”

Cathy’s eyes widened, everything started to make sense again, of course it had to be that guy.

The two spent the rest of the day together, until the sun set and night soon approached. Cathy and Anna headed back to the agency after that, the day was surprisingly eventful for Cathy, but it was just a plain old regular day for Anna. Well, her day was always full of action because of her job.

Once again, Cathy stood at the entrance of the agency, her hand grabbing onto the doorknob. Like always, she suddenly felt a surge of anxiety when she reached the door. However, her worries this time was different.

One of her hands was used to fidget with something inside the pocket of her hoodie, her worries this time was caused by the object she had hidden away in her pocket.

“Ready?” Anna queried, trying to make sure the person with her was prepared to enter the building.

“Yeah.” Cathy sighed. She turned the knob and opened the door.

The office was dimly lit, with the light source coming from the office of Catherine Aragon. There was no one else in sight, which meant Bessie and Maria had left already, leaving Aragon to be the only one in the agency. Cathy navigated with caution, making sure she didn’t knock over or bump into anything along the way.

She reached the office of her godmother, but the image she soon found herself witnessing wasn’t one that she thought she could ever see. She saw Catherine Aragon sleeping in peace, her head laying on the desk in her office.

“Well that’s....unexpected.” Anna whispered quietly so she wouldn’t disturb the person still sleeping soundly.

“....what do I do now?”

“Well I dunno, give it to her later?” Anna answered the question sarcastically while making sure to keep her volume to a minimum.

“You don’t have to be so mean about it....” Cathy babbled out, then looked around in search of something.

“Whatcha lookin for?” Anna pondered, then tried to help her look for said object, even though she wasn’t quite sure what Cathy was actually looking for. Even though that seemed like it was unnecessary, give the detective some credit, she was still trying.

“We can’t really wake her up now, so let’s just find the key and leave her here to rest for a bit.” Cathy noted, her eyes lowered to the coat hanging on the back of the chair she was sitting on. An outline of something similar to a keychain stuck out of the pocket of the coat, which led her to sink her hand into said pocket, grabbing the thing inside.

She pulled out her hand and some keys were dangling off of her hand, the two inspected the set of keys closely, then discovered that it was the set of keys they were looking for.

“We should probably get something to cover her while we’re at it, or else she’d catch a cold.” Cathy pointed out, which caused Anna to reach for the coat that Cathy found the keys in, laying the piece of clothing on top of Catherine.

“There!” The detective marvelled at her own fantastic idea, raising her voice a little too much, causing the person asleep to move slightly, scaring the two standing in front of her.

Cathy rapidly shushed the person at her side, which made them mutter out an apology. The two then made their way carefully out of the office, but before they left, Cathy turned back around, pulling out her phone in the process.

“Can’t miss an opportunity like this.” She gushed, positioning the camera into the perfect spot.

The door to the apartment building opened, and Maggie jumped up with a fearful look. The thoughts of Anne failing to bring Kat back raced in her mind. She would’ve blamed herself straight away, and might even try to find Katherine herself if she’s that desperate. But luckily, another person entered the flat with Anne, and the sight of it relaxed Maggie in a flash.

“Katherine? Oh god it’s actually you....I’m really sorry for-” she tried to apologise for what she’s done, but was tackled by the receiver of the apology before she could even finish saying it.

“It’s alright. I’m sorry for yelling at you.” She whispered back to Maggie, who was still trying to process what was happening. Anne leaned on the door, a satisfied smile on her face formed after seeing the two hugging.

After a few more apologies from both sides, the three of them ended up sitting on their respective chairs. Anne sat in front of Katherine, while Maggie took a seat farther away from them to give them some space.

Katherine honestly had no idea what she should do next, but her cousin’s hand slid over to her side, soon holding her own pair of hands. She looked up to find Anne shooting an understanding look towards her direction.

“....let’s figure out what we’ll do next. One step at a time.” Anne assured her cousin, knowing what Katherine had on her mind as if she communicated to her telepathically. Katherine relaxed her shoulders, then took a deep breath to prepare herself.

“Do you two plan on continuing doing this?” Katherine began, she had a seemingly worried expression on her face, Anne took note of it, then confessed everything she had on her mind.

“.....yes. I want to continue doing this. I have something I have to do before I can stop. I....I just can’t stop now.”

“I...I see.”

“Do you want me to stop? I can stop if you really want me to, just say the word.” Anne gave a reluctant response.

“I know that you two really want to keep on doing this, but I’m just......worried? I don’t know....Now that I know what you two have been doing for so long, I’m scared. Will you get caught? Will you get hurt? I just want to make sure this is the right decision...”

One of Anne’s concerns she had when she initially decided to keep this as a secret was exactly this. She couldn’t bear watching her cousin being stressed over her every single time she went out to conduct her phantom thief activities. Katherine knew how much Anne wanted to continue, she really did, but can she really allow her cousin the chance to chase her goal, even with the threat of injuries or even death looming so closely?

Katherine’s feelings contradicted every one of Anne’s goals. Multiple thoughts came swarming in to her mind all at once, her heart’s beating kept on increasing, her breathing’s pace picked up alongside it as well. The gruesome images of her cousin’s death came flashing, she couldn’t keep this on.

Would she be a good cousin if she didn’t allow it? Would she ruin all of Anne’s plans because of her selfish desires? What can she do?

An idea struck. It was an exceedingly risky and dangerous idea, but it could fulfil the aims of both of them at the same time. Out of everything she could do, this was the one that would be the best option out of all of them.

She held her head up, the looked at Anne with an unwavering pair of eyes.

“Let me come with you.”


	8. Distant memories and recent discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna and Cathy shares their past to each other. Meanwhile, Katherine takes her very first steps in phantom thievery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a little break before writing this chapter, but hey it’s here now!

“Anna?”

“Yeah, Cathy?”

“How did you and Jane meet? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you two mention how the both of you ended up living together?”

“That’s....a long story.” Anna responded as she grabbed onto the steering wheel with a tighter grip. The duo are currently sat in Anna’s car, heading towards the residence of Catherine Aragon and Catherine Parr. Anna was the one driving while Cathy sat besides her, still staring at the box in her hand with an eloquent expression. Her fingers traced the pattern on the box, hoping to calm her nerves by distracting herself from her anxieties.

“I remember I know Jane from Catherine, and when I was looking for a place to live after I got kicked out of my last place, Jane offered to let me live with her and her friend, which was Joan.”

“That’s.....a long story to you?”

“That was the short version.” Anna took the chance to give the person next to her a satirical stare when they were at a red light.

“And the long version is....?”

“Well, if you really want to know.....”

Anna remembers this part of her life vividly. It meant too many things to her for her to forget any part of it, but mostly, it meant the point in her life where things suddenly took a turn for the better. Even though the beginning of it was rough, things got better for her and she met everyone who’s still close to her right now in this period of time.

To her and some others, her life seemed like a drama from television, some sizeable portions of her life could easily be written in a soap opera. Well, getting shipped over from a foreign country not knowing a single bit of English was certainly a very significant event. She wasn’t even aware of what was happening, but thinking back about it now, it was clear to her that her family had abandoned her.

After being dropped here, she had to relearn everything, from speaking and writing to socialising. That wasn’t the end of it though, she had been kicked out of several houses for not being able to pay rent. Nevertheless, she started getting better after those tragic moments. For instance, she finished years of laborious training and was hired by the one and only Catherine Aragon.

“You okay there?” Catherine approached the detective working for her, who was sighing while holding a pile of papers.

“I....honestly I’m not feeling too well.”

“What’s wrong?” Catherine asked the other, she sat next to them to try and comfort them.

“I’m struggling to find a place to stay.” Anna sighed while putting the papers back into a file. She then put her fingers on her temples to try and massage them, her frustration visibly showing in front of the other detective.

“Ah....” Catherine’s head dropped a little to express her sympathy for her colleague, but then something proceeded to run through her mind. That unexpected thought made her head perk back up with her eyes widened.

“I just remembered...I think I have a friend who has a few vacant rooms in her house, I could try getting her to contact you if you’d like?”

Anna sat at the corner of the tiny cozy coffee shop, her fingers ran along the rims of the cup she had on her table. She gazed at the window, waiting expectantly for someone to arrive. She just received a message from the person she was supposed to be waiting for, apologising to her that they would be slightly late because of someone that supposedly happened at work.

There was some rain earlier that day, so a few drops of rainwater was still dripping down the top of the window. With every drop, the rainwater would leave down a trail, which made Anna observe carefully at the traces left behind, she thought that it would help her cure her momentary boredom. In fact, it helped too much, her water gazing made her fall into a daydream, making her lose all sense of what was happening around her, not even how much time had actually passed or the sound of the bell of the cafe’s entrance ringing, signalling that a new customer had arrived.

That customer was Jane Seymour, of course it just had to be the person she was waiting for. The person who entered the small shop had her blonde hair flowing down freely, she wore a clean white jacket with a grey shirt underneath it, along with a pair of jeans and an ordinary pair of boots. She looked around the shop, occasionally glancing down at her phone in the middle of her scanning to make sure the person she was searching for was still in the premises.

Anna, being blissfully unaware of the woman looking for her was pulled out of her trance when Jane walked over to her table and said a casual greeting. She jolted back up from her daydream and looked at the person standing in front of her, who was hiding a smirk behind their arm after seeing Anna’s reaction to her greeting.

“Hi! Um...are you....Jane Seymour?” Anna asked the woman, saying the last part hesitantly and with a higher pitch to signify her doubt.

“Yeah, you’re Anna, right?”

“Yep! Take a seat, maybe order something if you’d like? I’ll pay.” Anna offered while she gestured towards the seat directly in front of her, patting down at that side of the table enthusiastically.

“I’m fine with just a cup of coffee, let’s get right to it, shall we?”

“That....still isn’t a long story.”

“Not all stories have to be a one hundred thousand word novel in order for it to be long, Cathy.”

“Please stop saying stuff to try and make me sound like an avid writer or reader, I’m really not.”

“Says the one who just admitted to not going out frequently earlier today.”

“Not everyone has to go out two or three times every day! I’m in the majority here!”

“Keep on dreaming, ask anyone who is close to you and they’ll prove you wrong.”

Cathy and Anna’s banter continued on, but soon Anna noticed Cathy’s longing stares at the box she had in her hand. Her anxiety-ridden look gave all her emotions away, and Anna had to point this out before her worries could get even worse.

“You know she’ll love it no matter what, right?”

“....what are you talking about?” Cathy questioned the driver, jerking up from her gaze at the box, “I thought you said you weren’t the best judge for these kinds of things?” She quoted one of Anna’s replies from earlier in the day, using her index and middle fingers to exaggerate her quotation.

“What I’m saying is,” Anna ignored Cathy’s previous statement and continuing her own, but not without a slight scoff at her exaggerated teasing, “she’ll love that gift no matter what. She’ll know that you’ve put your heart and soul into picking the most exquisite one out of them all, and that she’ll appreciate your concerns.”

“....really? I....I’m just...worrying. Like how I always do,” Cathy’s unease didn’t loosen up any bit, even with Anna’s constant assurances, “I’m not just worrying about my gift, Anna.”

“Then what’s bothering you?”

“....don’t you think that she’s...changed? Ever since that thief showed up, she has been acting more and more....desperate.”

Anna remained silent after Cathy’s last sentence, she didn’t really know how she could respond to that. It was true, Catherine has changed, but can she really just admit that outright to her goddaughter? Her job right now is to help her with her anxieties, not make it worse, but who will benefit from her lying? Not Cathy, that’s for sure.

“I don’t know what happened between them, but Henry messed everything up. I....I don’t want her to work herself to death, but she just seems to stray closer and closer, and it all started after....the Henry incident.” Cathy returned to glancing down at the delicate box in her hand, “I just hope that I can help her. She’s the only family I have, and I don’t think I’ve done enough for her....especially considering what she has done for me.”

“....I know that it may be inconsiderate for me to ask,” Anna straightened her back, preparing for a heavy answer from Cathy for her next query, “what....happened to your other family members?”

“They.....” Cathy’s vision began to become blurry, a strange sensation began to settle into her, her breathing hitched, but she pushed her feelings down, she continued to answer the question, struggling to find the right words to express her thoughts, “my mom...passed away when I was a teenager, I don’t remember the rest of my family, but they were probably already out of the picture when I was just a child. After that, I was sent to Catherine because of her connection with my mom.” She finally worked up the strength to explain her past, but she referred to her godmother by her name, not by their relation.

“She’s the only family I have left, but I still act like she’s not. I know that she’s trying her best, but I push her away every time. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because....I don’t want to admit it? I still can’t accept the fact that she’s the only person I can consider family at this point. Maybe if I keep on ignoring reality, I can continue living in my delusional dreams.” Cathy sighed with a heavy heart. She shut her eyelids tight and leaned backwards on her seat, “I don’t want to replace my family, even if I have absolutely no memories of them left. I know that Catherine is trying to make me feel more comfortable, but I still can’t do it.”

Anna kept her eyes on the traffic while listening attentively, she didn’t know that Cathy had this much on her mind, so she was shocked to find out the conflict currently taking place in her heart.

“So....I’m hoping this can be my apology to her, I’m not good at speaking, so this’ll be it for now.” Cathy held up the box, the moonlight shining on the velvet box, highlighting its patterns and overall shape.

“In my opinion,” Anna finally figured out a reply, and managed to say it while still concentrating on driving, “I think that it’s not wrong for you to doubt, to question, and to...dislike the truth. It’s hard to admit that your family is gone forever, and it’ll obviously take time before you can get used to a new one. I’m sure you’ll figure everything out soon enough.”

The sharp sound of a ringing alarm clock violated Katherine’s ears, disturbing her in her slumber. She turned away from the loud noise and protected her ears with her pillow, but a hand grabbed the pillow away from her, making her turn back with an annoyed face.

“Wake up, we’ve got stuff to do.” Anne notified her cousin while shutting off the alarm clock and throwing the pillow towards the end of the bed.

“Mmm....it’s still...” Katherine paused in the middle of her whining, taking a close look at the clock before continuing, “it’s 6 in the morning?”

“Yep.”

“Why do we need to wake up at 6 in the morning?!” Katherine jumped up after the thought of being woken up at the crack of dawn finally sunk into her mind, a clearly over the top expression on her face.

“Morning jog and breakfast, what else?” Anne answered her cousin’s question while giving her an unamused eyebrow raise.

Katherine was still shocked about her cousin’s answer at her bold request last night, but her confusion soon turned into slight regret, as they were now jogging in one of the nearby parks. Anne was testing her cousin, obviously. She was still baffled at the thought of Katherine trying to work alongside her in her phantom thief business, but she wanted to give her a shot at it first. Maybe she’ll give up halfway because of the egregious amount of exercise it required, but to her surprise, Katherine kept her complaints in her mind.

After the two had gone for breakfast, Anne informed Katherine that their training would last for five days, which meant they had until Saturday to finish.

“Really? That short?” Was Katherine’s first response at Anne’s statement, but she soon realised why the deadline was set on that particular day. The phantom thief always shows up somewhere on Saturdays. Her second response for it was a more serious one though, “and how would you determine if I’m befitting of becoming a phantom thief?”

Anne thought of a way to see if her cousin really had the ability to cause mayhem by her side, but Katherine was oblivious to Anne’s idea until she felt the wind blowing past her neck, sending a chilling jolt to her.

_Wait a minute._

She reached up to her neck, and felt that something was missing from her usual accessories.

“Where is my-” Katherine panicked, looking in almost every possible spot to find the missing item, but when her eyes landed on the object Anne had in her hand, her worries soon went away.

“Lookin for this?” Anne commented on Katherine’s sudden panic with the signature choker with a ‘K’ hanging from it swaying in her hand.

“When did you take it?” Katherine panted, running up to Anne to try and get it back from her cousin, but Anne raised her arm up, preventing Katherine from getting the choker back.

“This’ll be it,” Anne snickered, dodging Katherine’s various attempts at trying to reach for the choker with ease, “if you manage to get your choker back from me before Saturday, then I’ll bring you with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna post a Halloween fic tomorrow, so if you’re interested you can check it out later?


	9. Waltzing into midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cathy and Jane try to get some stuff out of their minds. The cousins go out to have fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, trying to pace the story better so it doesn’t seem weird...

Catherine Parr sat alone inside of her workplace. It was currently lunchtime, so it should be normal for the other coworkers to be out enjoying their meal, but Catherine had no intention of going out or eating lunch at all. No, she’d simply rather consume a regular pack of protein bar and drink a cup of tea. The idea seemed much more delightful to her than to walk out under the blazing sun, travel through groups and groups of people to find a place to eat.

Not only did the idea of going out seem despicable and tiresome, something lurked inside the back of her mind. She wasn’t much of a fluent speaker, she’s much better with writing, but she managed to spill out her entire life story and her troubling emotions to someone she doesn’t even know all that well in just one car ride.

Did she regret telling Anna what she had on her mind? Not exactly. Like what people always say, it’s better to just get it off your chest. She stared at the monitor in front of her with an empty pair of eyes, munching on the bar with a few sets of slow chewing, completely unaware of anything else that was happening around her.

If someone happened to walk by, they might find this scene to be somewhat tranquil, but they won’t know the storm that was brewing inside of her heart and mind. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling exactly. Anguish? Hurt? This sense of unknown frustrated her even more, she reached for the mug on her desk and took a large gulp.

Maybe it was heartache. Heartache for knowing her parents weren’t there with her anymore.

Maybe it was grief. The grief someone would normally feel when they’ve just experienced lost.

No, these don’t make sense, why is she only feeling this now? Those events already took place years ago, her feelings should have faded, not deepen.

Focus. She needed to concentrate back on her work. She is supposed to, anyways. Her godmother always seemed to dedicate herself to her work, she has spent countless amount of hours to perfect her skills, to search for clues and hunt down culprits. Catherine has always admired her godmother’s determination, it was something she strives to learn from her, among the sea of other qualities of the renowned detective.

She clenched her jaw tightly, rubbed her eyes again and then made contact with the keyboard on her desk, but someone just had to arrive at that exact moment and interrupt her.

“I always thought you drank coffee, not tea.”

“I’m trying to switch things up a bit, tea’s fine.” A voice ended her train of thought abruptly, she pulled her hands back away from the keyboard and rubbed the back of her neck to try and relax herself as much as possible.

“Ah, that’s good, you’ll seem like an addict if you keep on drinking coffee anyways.”

“You’re like her so much.” The voice came from behind her, and it moved from her back to the seat next to her, along with a figure that she figured out to be none other than....

“What do you mean by that, Jane?” Catherine shifted her point of focus onto Jane, who was taking a seat on the chair next to her.

“Your godmother. You two always forget to eat a proper meal and jump straight back into work. Not to mention the both of you don’t even make an attempt to get along with anyone else in the workplace.”

“....I just didn’t want to go out,” Cathy adjusted her position, spinning her chair towards Jane’s direction in order to communicate with the other easier, “I wish I could dedicate every second of my day to work though, sounds much simpler.”

Jane wasn’t usually around the office when it was lunchtime. Well, she would have to actually be at the office during work hours in the first place for her to be around, which was already an uncommon occurrence since she always has something to do out in the field. However, today was not like any other, Jane found herself sitting inside her office for a majority of the day.

Truth be told, the conversation Jane had yesterday had her rethinking everything. In other words, she is in a similar situation as the girl next to her. They were both baffled by how much they have told the other party. Shocked by how easy it was to express their emotions to the other side. Uncertain about what the future may hold for them after they’ve revealed their inner demons.

Regret. That’s the emotion the two were struggling to admit to feeling.

Catherine regrets treating her godmother the way she does right now. She regrets comparing her guardians, she regrets ignoring all the attempts her godmother has made to try and reconcile, Aragon has been wasting her precious time to learn how to better communicate or just raise someone in general, and Cathy has been squandering any chance of building a bond between them.

Jane regrets everything she has done to Anne. She saw and opportunity and took it without any second thoughts, she thought that a broken heart was all that could possibly come out of her actions, but her involvement ended up making Anne’s life spiral downhill. Of course, not only did she ruin her cousin’s life, she ruined her own as well. She forced herself into a romantic relationship with the biggest arsehole she could ever possibly meet in a lifetime, no sane human being could make that choice deliberately.

In some ways, the two are in the same boat.

“What are your thoughts on the phantom thief? I’m sure you’d be able to make some deductions,” Jane couldn’t help but notice the multiple webpages Cathy had on her screen, all of them pertaining to the topic she just brought up, “maybe you’d know more than I do, you do live with the lead detective of this case.”

Cathy immediately realised the pages and pages of information she had on display in front of Jane, and promptly closed the webpages down so she could stop the other from noticing even more.

“They...they’re someone who’s always level-headed, judging from how they’ve been able to avoid detection for a year now,” Cathy took a moment to clear her mind, directing her thoughts back to the matter at hand, “I think that this Saturday’s case was intentional. They meant to get caught and stir up that big chase.”

“Oh? Care to elaborate on that?” Jane had her head resting on her arm, the sly smirk wasn’t subtle at all, and Cathy caught onto that quite quickly.

“As we’ve seen and heard from the live broadcast and the detectives’ supposed reports, that thief acted....rather boastful....arrogant? Theatrical,” Cathy trailed off, trying to think of the best description for the thief’s actions, subconsciously rubbing her chin while thinking, “anyways, one thing we know for sure was that they were confident in their abilities, they even taunted their pursuers before their escape, so that’s definitely a clue.”

“If we’re really trying to dig deep and analyse every piece of evidence, then we’ll have to take a look at some of their appearances,” Cathy articulated, but she paused suddenly, then looked at the other for a sign of approval to rant even more. Jane gave a nod, which prompted her to continue on with her speech, “looking back at some of the cases like the emerald theft or the time they released hundreds- no, thousands of stacks of money into the heart of the city, it’s clear that they have an apparent motive in mind...”

Ah, those two are pretty high on the phantom thief’s list of ‘favourite cases’, actually. Anne considered those to be her masterpieces. After all, those bold moves of hers drove the entire city nuts. Cathy took notice of something they had in common, which the thief placed for all to see in plain sight. To the thief, those details were a taunt of some sort, taunting the multiple teams of elite investigators and officers who kept failing to piece together the thief’s identity.

“Don’t you see how the thief would always target a celebrity or an owner of a major corporation? It might be because they have more properties to steal, but this pattern matches every theft they have made. They’ve never tried to...steal from a museum, or a bank. It’s always from some showcases...” Cathy trailed off, but Jane still listened to her rambles with great intrigue. Cathy listed off more possibilities and clues from the thief, some seemed more feasible than others, but Jane still took note of it.

As her ramblings went on, Jane couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, but not at Cathy’s theories.

“Did I say something wrong?” Cathy asked with a finger on her chin and a raised eyebrow. Jane quickly waved off her confusion, and replied to her question, “no, it’s just that.... your explanations seem to be much more in depth than even your godmother’s.”

“Really?” Cathy’s entire body almost fell off the chair in shock, her eyes widened and her mouth was open wide, her surprise was shown incredibly animatedly in front of her employer. She soon returned to her original state, but she had a bit of doubt about Jane’s statement, “I really don’t think my deduction skills can be as good as her....I mean, she’s literally the best detective we’ve ever gotten the chance to know?!”

“...that’s true. I was unsure back then when she was answering my question, but now? I think I know why her answer was that simple,” Jane sighed, Cathy leaned closer to Jane with great anticipation, “she’s hiding something. Something about this thief has changed her, I’m sure you’ve noticed that by now.”

Cathy nod in confirmation, then Jane continued, “she’s not that great at trying to hide her feelings, I’ve spent too much time with her and I know the signs when I see it.”

“I suppose you’re right on that. I’ve never heard much about how you two were back then, but it’s clear that you two are close....maybe even closer than my relationship with her.” Cathy let out an enervated snigger, which made a memory of Jane’s appear back into her mind...

Jane Seymour wasn’t one to enjoy parties. She didn’t plan on doing anything once she arrived, so she just stood in the corner of the crowded hall, bored out of her mind with nothing better to do. She contemplated on leaving the party, but that’d break the promise she had with a certain someone. She was dragged here with one goal in mind, if she could leave with someone else in the party, then she could escape from this ‘hell hole’.

An exasperated sigh left her mouth yet again, she kept checking the time on her phone, hoping that time could magically speed up, but a watched pot never boils, does it?

The flashing lights of red and green irritated her vision, the blasting noise of pop music invaded her ears and the sea of people there annoyed her to no end. She’s regretting the vow she made just an hour ago already, and as she continues to grumble miserably, a tap on her shoulder pulled her back into the irksome reality she was desperately trying to escape from.

“I’m not interested.” she hissed and turned away, not even bothering to look at the person before doing so.

“I know you are, why are you here?” The other party made another advance, but their choice of words caught the blonde off guard. She twirled back to look at the person, and was stunned when she realised who was trying to strike up a conversation with her.

“Lina? I could ask you the same! What’re you doing here?” A joyous remark found itself reaching Catherine, but she dismissed it quickly by letting a sigh out, “my roommate locked me out, I’m trying to find them but this place is filled with people.”

“Ah....I got dragged here and I can’t leave unless I find another person to go with,” Jane scratched the back of her head, an understanding smile formed on her face. That statement made Catherine a little curious, so she decided to cut straight to the chase and ask more about Jane’s current situation, “that’s....a strange reason for being at a party?”

“She’s out there having fun while I’m here suffering. I’m sure you’ll know who I’m talking about,” Jane complained, rolling her eyes to show her annoyance even more.

“Well....can’t you technically leave now?” Catherine asked, then pointed to herself to make her query more clear for the other to understand.

“Umm...yeah, but don’t you have to find someone?”

“I’ll just spend the night at your place, trying to find someone here is like trying to find a needle in a haystack anyways.”

The two strolled down the street, the radiance moonlight and street lamps were the only sources of light that could be found on the streets. Both of them enjoyed the utter silence of the world, being free from the booming noises of a speaker was certainly one of the best sensations they’ve felt up until now.

Soon after walk, they found themselves on a piece of deserted grassland. They’d chat and laugh under the elegance of the moon, the night was unexpectedly well for the both of them. They both assumed that they would’ve been consumed by the nightmare of parties, but delectation was the only emotion they were experiencing at that very moment. Everything seemed....nice. It was as if their problems melted away with the world, nothing could have ruined their moment, absolutely nothing.

“What are your plans? Like...work? Or just for the future in general,” Catherine asked the person accompanying her on the ground, “we’ll be graduating soon, better think of something now...”

“I...that’s a really loaded question, y’know?” Jane stared daggers at Catherine, who immediately shrugged it off. Jane, who was now defeated in her attempt to avoid the question, yielded and thought of a response, “the first thing I’ll do is definitely find a new place to live, find a stable job then...escape my family, something along the lines.”

“You...don’t like living with your family?”

“It’s not just living with them, I just...can’t stand them in general. My dad gets pissed off at everything and there’s no way I’ll be able to compete with my numerous siblings. I can’t compare with....her, but I still think my family is unbearable.” Jane gave her a solemn look, then realised that the other wasn’t responding anymore.

“Catherine? You still there?” She waved her hands in front of the other, which successfully caught her attention, but that was it. Still no response.

“Did I say something wrong? Sorry if I did-”

“No, it’s just....I was thinking,” Catherine let out a thick voice, “so...Anne’s parents are even worse?”

“Oh they’re just the scum of humanity.”

“Right...and I’m guessing the one who took you to tonight’s party was...”

“Anne.”

“She’s actually a decent cousin, don’t you think?”

“I still didn’t enjoy the party, but I guess you have a point.”

“Well, we shouldn’t be so harsh on her, she’s only trying to help,” Catherine noted, then stood up, brushing the dirt off of her clothes, “still, I think that she was right in taking you out tonight.”

“How so?” Jane snorted, keeping her eyes on the other as they got up.

Catherine then stared down at the girl on the ground with an expectant gaze, she extended her arm towards the other, in hopes that they would follow her. Jane looked surprised at first, but gave into her own curiosity soon after. She grabbed onto the arm, then Catherine pulled her back up to stand.

“What’re we doing now?”

“We wouldn’t want to waste this lovely night now, do we?” Catherine then reached for Jane’s other arm, placing it on her shoulder, “shall we have this dance?”

“...you’re so weird sometimes, we don’t even have music?” Jane giggled out, to which Catherine replied by pulling out her phone.

“So,” She continued by pressing the ‘play’ button on her phone, “like I was saying, shall we have this dance?”

Katherine let out a yelp as she lunged towards her cousin to make another attempt at grabbing her beloved choker, only to fail again, face planting onto the ground for the fifth time this week.

“Damn it!” She slammed her fist onto the ground, then let out a small whimper of pain right after.

“Can’t say you’re not getting better though, keep trying, my dear cousin.” Anne said as she leaned on a nearby wall, swirling the choker around with her finger as a small taunt towards her cousin, who was still on the ground.

It has reached Friday. The last day for Katherine to get her choker back, or else she’ll fail her training and Anne would refuse to let her become a phantom thief. Katherine slowly began to learn Anne’s techniques, her moves, and she was finally getting to know her true cousin. Even if she fails, at least she has that going for her. Anne no longer has to hide anything from her, and she’s finally starting to understand the real Anne Boleyn, the one behind the mask.

“Maggie told me that I should let you use some tools, she said how this wasn’t fair and that you wouldn’t be able to get the choker, bla bla bla, in short, she’s letting you use a grappling hook.” Anne notified Katherine, then proceeded to dump a backpack onto the ground, right next to where Katherine was still laying.

“Um...I don’t know how to use...this?” She fretted as she opened the bag, pulling out a pair of intricate machinery which looked like gauntlets. She inspected the pair with great care, testing out each of the functions on the tool.

“Shouldn’t be too difficult, go ahead and-” Anne’s advice was then instantly cut off by a hook being shot in her direction. Luckily for Anne and Katherine, the thief has developed great reflexes after her year of constant thievery.

“Ah! Sorry!” Katherine apologised, but she noticed how another part of the machine popped up right after she had launched the hook, so she instinctively decided to press on that as well. The hook retracted back into the trinket, making her jump with shock.

“Looks like you’ve got that figured out already,” Anne remarked, “wanna take it out for a spin?”

“You betcha!” Katherine stood up while trying to put the tool onto her arms. However, she was stopped in the middle of the process when Anne handed her a hoodie and a mask.

“We should cover ourselves up first if we’re planning to use those.”

The two began their chase once again, with Anne being pursued by Katherine. This chase was a bit more extreme than the ones they have been doing for the past week though, in this one, the two began their chase on a rooftop, which led to many new possible routes.

Katherine was navigating through the rooftops well, she started getting the hang of the grappling device on her arms, and was soon moving through the obstacles with ease. As for Anne, she moved past without even breaking a sweat.

The two followed a pattern of either jumping through the gaps in between buildings or just grappling onto the other side, but Katherine suddenly found an opportunity to overtake Anne’s lead. She aimed her hook towards the pipe of the roof ahead, then shot her hook way past Anne.

The hook successfully landed onto the pipe, and Katherine flew straight ahead, landing in front of the phantom thief. Thus, their final showdown began.

Anne tried to dodge any of her cousin’s attempts at the choker. Katherine first dashed to Anne, but failed to get her choker right after Anne stepped out of the way. Then, Katherine turned to face her cousin once again, she tried tackling the thief, which made Anne’s hood fall off her head, exposing her messy space buns. Anne rolled out of Katherine’s way yet again, and the distance between them had began to expand.

Katherine noticed what Anne was trying to do, then bolted towards her once again with a single goal in mind. She was going to get her choker back.

Anne made the mistake of pulling out the choker again to toy with it in a playful manner, swinging it with her finger again as if her cousin wasn’t currently trying to rip it out of her hands.

Katherine halted at the sight of her choker being whipped out again, then began to formulate another plan.

“What? You giving up now?” Anne mocked the other while the choker was still being spun in a circular motion.

The next few movements went by in a few seconds, but to them, it felt like it was slowed down as much as possible.

Katherine pointed her arm towards the choker, then released the hook. It seemed like it was heading towards the choker, but a simple sidestep from Anne was enough to avoid having the choker taken.

“Really? You have to do more than that!” Anne jeered at her cousin’s latest attempt, but Katherine ignored her remark. Instead, she tapped on the trinket, pull the hook back. Anne thought nothing of this action at first, but a small modification from Katherine changed her attitude immediately. Katherine swinged her arm upwards while the hook was still retracting, which aligned the hook perfectly onto the choker on Anne’s finger.

The choker slipped out of Anne’s possession in quick success. Katherine clutched onto the choker swiftly after it had flew back to her, but Anne still had a wide grin on her face.

“Yes! Didn’t see that coming now did you-”

Katherine’s celebration was then halted by the sight of her cousin holding her familiar choker. She opened up her palm to look at the choker that was in her hands, and she noticed an excruciatingly unmistakable detail of said choker, it was missing the ‘K’ charm that was supposed to be dangling from it.

“Did you really think I’d be so careless to not prepare a dummy choker?” Anne rubbed her victory in even more by teasing her cousin, who was still dumbfounded at the fake choker in her hand.

“You....how did you..”

“Hiding the one without a charm with the actual one was easy enough, no one would notice it at such a long distance. I guess I should applaud you for using the hook, but in the end, I guess you’re really not fit to be a phantom thief, so let’s wrap this up and head back, I’m sure you’re tired....”

Anne was going to continue her grand speech, but she noticed that her cousin wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. No, she kept on staring at the choker. Anne guessed that it was just too shocking for Katherine, but no, that wasn’t it at all.

“Kitty, you gotta admit that you won’t be able to get to my level in less than a week,” she tried to instigate a conversation again, but some soft giggles from the pink girl stopped her attempt, it made her voice fade away in the middle of her sentence, “come on, let’s go....and...”

“You haven’t noticed? After all this time?” Katherine perked her head back up with a smug smirk, her finger was pointing to her own neck, which made Anne wonder, her neck? What does that mean? She moved her hand up to her own neck, and what followed after was a pair of extremely widened eyes. Her own choker was missing from her neck.

“Didn’t expect that now, did you?” Katherine snickered out while stepping closer to Anne, who was still taking all of what had just happened in.

How did she do it? Well, that part was actually surprisingly easy. When they were still having their intense dodge and weave session, Katherine made numerous attempts at grabbing a choker, specifically Anne’s own choker. Why? She figured that Anne would put all her attention to Katherine’s choker, the one she assumed Katherine was trying to steal back. By using that to her advantage, she managed to time her grab perfectly, the choker left Anne’s neck at the same time her hood fell off, leading her to misinterpret what had happened.

“Looks like you’re not as bad as I thought, Kitty.” Anne admitted in disbelief, but as Katherine got closer, she extended the hand she had been holding onto the choker with towards Katherine, admitting her defeat to her cousin, “I can’t say I’m not impressed, so....here.”

Katherine reached out to take the choker off of Anne, but when Anne tried to take her own choker, Katherine held it close to her chest, tutting at Anne before telling her, “you’re going to pay for separating me and my precious choker!”

After that, Katherine ran off, fist-pumping along the way while shouting out a few ‘yays’ and ‘hoorays’. Anne stood still, watching with a dumbfounded expression as her cousin took off with her own choker. Still, she didn’t try to steal it back immediately. In fact, she looked forward to seeing what Katherine plans on doing with it.

“Congratulations.” Anne murmured to herself while Katherine exited the building. She didn’t plan on telling Katherine about her secret identity, and she definitely didn’t think she’d actually let her come along, but in the end, she threw all of those thoughts aside. She could finally live happily with her cousin, there’s no need for her to hide anything ever again, and she’s grateful that she had finally got that off of her chest.

She looked at the exit with a beaming smile. No matter what happens next, she hopes that she’ll be with Katherine in every step of the way. With only that thought in mind, she ran towards the exit in an attempt to catch up with the pink bubbly girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just had to get a little bit of Jane and Catherine fluff in, I love seeing them together, romantically or platonically.


	10. Ease your mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last preparations of Katherine, Anna and Cathy before the phantom thief appears again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 600 hits! Woohoo! I’m so glad people are enjoying the story so far, I’m planning on writing more one shots and AUs soon, so check out my tumblr (ender1821) for updates!
> 
> I feel like I should add a trigger warning just for Henry’s appearance alone, so here’s the warning, I hate writing him so much :’D

Friday night. Like every Friday night that has happened in the past year, Anna had to start preparing for tomorrow night. By now, everyone was preparing for tomorrow night. Jane and Cathy had to standby in case something big happened, Anna and Catherine had to start patrolling around to reach the scene, no matter where it is, as quickly as possible. As for Anne and Katherine, they’re the ones who’ll actually cause all the commotion.

Anna sat in her own corner of the agency, with Bessie and Maria doing the exact same. The office was filled with silence, it was so quiet that you could hear the sound of them writing and typing in their own respective stations.

The tension was unbearable, but it has always been like this ever since the thief showed up. All of them were absentmindedly staring at Catherine’s office. They knew that the detective was eager to catch the phantom thief, so eager that she once stayed at the scene of the crime for the entire day.

They couldn’t actually see into the office. All they could see was a blurry shadow, but the silhouette could tell them all that they wished to know. After all, being a detective meant learning the body language of others, and the shadow didn’t seem too relaxed.

Of course, these three aren’t the only ones who has caught onto Catherine’s behaviour.

The phone on Anna’s desk interrupted her observation with a sudden ping. The screen flashed brightly to indicate that she received a new message, and without looking at the screen, she knew that it was Cathy. Cathy had been sending texts to the investigator everyday after their exchange inside Anna’s car. All these texts were basically her trying to check on her godmother, so Anna couldn’t exactly ignore her. Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to ignore her phone anyways.

**Cathy:** Any news?

She glanced down at the message and typed out a response soon after, she supposed that this was Cathy’s way of caring for Catherine. In a way, she’s relieved, Cathy is actually trying to mend their relationship, she’s actually trying to fix her problems. She couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride for her.

**Anna:** Nope, she’s just a little tense for tomorrow, apart from that, nothing to report.

She put down her phone after that message, but the thought of Cathy’s regular checkups was still on her mind. This wasn’t really her area of expertise, but she knows that the girl on the other side is brimming with stress, anxiety and worry. Was she prying into other people’s business? Yes, but it’s better for the girl’s mental health.

Thus, she began wracking her brain around this issue. How can she make Cathy worry less? Catherine is immediately out of the equation, including her would just worsen the problem. Jane also doesn’t sound like a good idea, she wouldn’t want to stress her out even more by making her hang out with her boss. Maria and Bessie aren’t that acquainted with her yet, so they’re a no go. Joan might work, but she’s rather busy. Who else?

As her contemplation continued, Cathy’s name always seemed to float back into her mind. How was it helpful? Well, the answer she was searching for was right in front of her this whole time, if she tried using her actual name.

Catherine? No, she’s been through that option before, but why does it seem like the answer?

Is it another Catherine? No, the only two Catherines she knows are Cathy and her boss. Who else could possibly-

_Oh._

The perfect person popped into her mind, and she grabbed her phone right after that realisation had hit her. She rushed out through the back door of the agency, leaving Maria and Bessie in a puzzled state, wondering why she left in such a hurry.

As soon as she got out of the building, she scrolled through her contact list, scanning through each name before reaching the names that started with the letter ‘K’. There’s only one person there, so she tapped on it instantly and dialled the number.

After a week of what she would call ‘intense tag’, Katherine finally gets to rest. She laid on the couch while her two other roommates were currently scurrying around the apartment trying to locate something. She mindlessly scrolled through her phone, reading through her feed quickly so she can move on to something else.

Anne trekked into the living room with a gleeful expression. She walked next to her exhausted cousin, who didn’t notice her until she tapped on the girl.

“Hm?” She put her phone down onto her stomach, then tilted her head up to look at Anne.

Her cousin was dressed in an extremely extravagant outfit, which she assumed to be her phantom thief clothes. She wore a black long-sleeved collared shirt with a dark green tie, with a matching dark green vest and gloves. She also had a pair of black pants and a black ankle-length tailcoat on the outside. Along with her outfit, she had a black boot with green laces.For her face, she usually wears a common green masquerade mask, but right now, she is holding that in her hand.

“Wow....” Katherine sighed at the sight of the costume, Anne took that as her being overwhelmed by the gorgeousness of her outfit, and decided to praise herself even more while she’s given the chance, “I know, I look stunning, right?”

“Em...” Katherine stuttered out, “that’s not how I would describe it...”

“Then what would you call this? Magnificent? Eye-catching? Breathtaking? Or maybe it’s sensational? Perhaps even out of this world!”

“I would say it is...” Katherine hesitated, but gave her own opinion anyways, “extra, or maybe even edgy.”

After hearing that statement, Anne drooped down her head in disappointment, but bounced back up eventually to retaliate against her cousin’s harsh decree, “well then, what would you wear if you’re a phantom thief?”

Katherine pushed herself up from the comfortable couch, then pranced past Anne and towards her own room. She opened her wardrobe, then dug out a few articles of clothing. She then poked her head back out from her room with a finger pointing at her shirt and vest, “you have an extra of those?”

“Uh, yeah?” Anne answered, but Maggie beat her to the race in getting the extra piece of clothing out. She handed Katherine the piece, then the pink girl promptly shut the door closely after.

While the girl was trying on different combinations of clothing, Anne turned to look at Maggie, “she didn’t have that reaction to my outfit last Saturday! Do I really look like that?”

“Well, in defence of your cousin, she was having a full on breakdown when she saw you in your outfit, and-“

“Wait,” Anne stopped Maggie in the middle of her response, “don’t continue, it’ll just wound my pride even more.”

“Sure.” Maggie scoffed while rolling her eyes, with her arms crossed and a not very subtle grin plastered on her face.

The door swung open after a while of experimenting. The sound of the it gained the attention of both Anne and Maggie, who perked up instantaneously as it opened.

It revealed Katherine donning the black shirt and vest that Maggie had given her, but with a pink tie underneath it instead of a green one. Apart from those, she wore a pink hoodie outside, with a pair of black pants of her own. She also had a pair of pink gloves that she miraculously found in her pile of clothes and a mask that she had previously worn not long ago today while she was having the chase with Anne. The mask was simple, as in it literally had no design on it and was purely pitch black. Finally, she had a pair of pink and white trainers.

“Really? A suit and a hoodie? I thought you knew how to dress-” Anne was trying to mock her cousin a little as payback for her comments on Anne’s outfit, but Maggie cut her off, “I think that looks fine! In fact, Kat totally rocks the suit and hoodie look!”

Anne stares at Maggie in shock, then puts a hand on her chest, sighing dramatically, “how could you help her but not defend me? Oh, I can’t believe I’m being betrayed, by my best friend no less!”

Katherine cackled at both of their comments and was almost tearing up a bit by sheer laughter alone, but the sound of a ringing phone caused their little session to come to a sudden end.

She reached out for her phone inside of her pocket, then stared at the name of the caller, someone who she definitely didn’t expect to be calling at this time of the day. She swiped across the screen after giving the screen a long hard look, then greeted the person on the other line,

“Anna? What’re you calling this late for?”

“Hey Kat! I just wanted to see if you’re free tomorrow afternoon? There’s something that I might need help with...”

“Oh! Um...tomorrow afternoon?” She repeated the question again, but this time, she turned around to look at Anne to seek for her approval, to which she replied with a nod and a thumbs up.

“Yeah, it’s about Cathy.”

“Sure! Just send me what we’re doing later, I’ll see you tomorrow!”

The call ended with a click, and Anna shoved her phone back into her pocket. This’ll surely help, with Katherine there, Cathy will surely calm down, right?

With that thought in mind, she headed back inside, but a loud shout made her stop as soon as she opened the back door.

“Get the fuck outta my way, I’m talking with her this time since your incompetent asses haven’t done anything about it yet!” A man was yelling at her fellow coworkers, who kept on trying to get the man to stop in his tracks. With one look, Anna already knew that she’s going to have a hard time dealing with this, since the man was clearly the arrogant prick who we call Henry Tudor. Just great. Just as she thought her day was going to get a bit better, it all falls in front of her like a line of dominoes.

“Mr. Tudor,” she cleared her voice and got the attention of the man, who turned to glare at her with a face of visible disgust, “you can’t just barge into the agency like this, especially after last week. We already told you that we’re looking into the case, so-”

“Shut the fuck up! I can go wherever I want, you hear me?” He spat out, swinging his fist around to exaggerate his anger.

If she could deck this guy out of their office, she would’ve done so a long time ago. Well, everyone in there would’ve done that if they could, but violence wouldn’t really solve the problem they had, so they continued warning the man, who continued to ignore everything they’ve had to say.

The arguing came to a halt when the door to Catherine’s office opened, which revealed said detective, clearly annoyed by the chaos currently unfolding.

“Mr. Tudor, please come in.” She invited Henry into her office, forcing out the sentence with gritted teeth.

“Finally, someone here actually knows their place!” He boasted, peering down at the three other detectives with a malicious grin. Catherine couldn’t stand the sight anymore, so she ushered the man into her office as quickly as possible.

“Do you think he’ll make it out alive?” Bessie asked the other two, who shrugged at the question.

“I think he can consider himself lucky if he comes back without any broken bones.” Anna returned the previous query with a joke and the three went back to their respective desks, all silently praying to not have to clean up a murder scene later.

“So, any news on the thief?” Henry asked while he tapped at the desk with excessive force, creating a bit too much noise for Catherine’s liking.

“They’ll be making an appearance tomorrow night, so like every Saturday night, we’ll be patrolling around to see where they plan on going next.”

“Then you should bring your pathetic little team to my place,” Henry mocked, keeping a shit-eating grin on his face while saying it, “they’ll definitely be coming to me next, they’ve already done that the last time, so they’ll come for me again!”

“You were drunk, Mr. Tudor,” Catherine sighed out as she knitted her eyebrows together, “you must have been under the effects of the alcohol, please just stop with your whole charade.”

“What? You don’t fucking believe me?” Henry screamed out at the top of his lungs, but Catherine maintained her posture, she’s seen this happen too many times, it doesn’t even faze her anymore at this point.

Seeing as his screeching got no reaction from Catherine, he stood up from his seat, then slammed his palm on the desk as hard as possible, “I was attacked by this piece of shit and you don’t even care? I thought you were looking for any possible sightings of them, so here I am! They even pulled out a gun at me! A fucking gun!”

“Unless you’re suggesting that they somehow magically obtained a gun out of thin air when they were travelling on top of the truck, they couldn’t have pointed a gun at you,” Catherine explained to Henry to the best of her abilities, “when I encountered the thief, I saw that they didn’t have any kinds of weapons at their disposal, the best they have is a grappling hook.”

Before Henry could embarrass himself yet again in front of the detective, Catherine cut him off straight away, “I urge you to leave now, Tudor. I don’t think you have anything left to contribute anyways.”

Cathy checked the address on her phone again, making sure that she didn’t arrive at the wrong place. She didn’t expect anything happening today, but apparently Anna had something planned for her. They weren’t even that close, they spent less than a week’s time with each other, but they’ve now managed to become friends? That idea seemed impossible to Cathy, but here she was, stumbling through the streets while looking for said person.

She didn’t mind going out with the other, it’s just that she wanted to prepare for what’s going to happen tonight alone. She knows that her godmother certainly won’t have a fun night out today. She wasn’t doubting Catherine’s abilities in any way, but she’s not going to catch the thief out of the blue without any valid evidence or clues. Even if her godmother returns home tonight without being either exhausted or frustrated, she’s going to have to get some information on what happens anyways, so why did Anna invite her out at this time specifically?

She wandered around aimlessly, she arrived ten minutes before the scheduled time, so she had some time to kill before Anna came. She wouldn’t have allowed herself to be late to anything, so being extremely early was sort of comforting to her. She wouldn’t have to worry about disappointing anyone or wasting someone’s time, and that’s all that mattered to her.

She glanced around her surroundings, there were a few groups of teenagers hanging out, a pair of old ladies sitting on a bench, a girl who wore a ponytail with pink tips, a young man staring at his phone, a couple of-

Someone looks familiar.

She stopped her observation and retraced her steps, focusing back on the girl with the ponytail, she did a double take at the person, then continued to stare, since she didn’t know what she should do.

Even if you brush aside the ponytail, there’s no way you wouldn’t recognise Katherine with the choker around her throat. The girl wore a light blue sweatshirt and a pair of white pants. Cathy noticed that the shirt also looks familiar, but she couldn’t exactly figure out why. As she continued to stare, she paid absolutely no attention to someone sneaking up behind her.

“Surprise!” A pair of hands grabbed Cathy’s shoulders, which made her whip her whole body around in a panic, she put both her arms up in order to pretend she was in some sort of fighting stance, making the other snicker. Once she realised what she had done and who the person was, she put down her arms and eased her shoulders, but not before telling the person off, “Anna, what the hell?”

“You looked like you were concentrating on something and I saw an opportunity.” Anna defended herself, but Cathy didn’t pay any attention to her statement as she turned back to look at Katherine, who got closer to pair while they were having their little greeting. In fact, she was standing right behind Cathy while Anna was defending herself, shocking Cathy once again, making her stumble back, bumping into Anna in the process.

“Umm....surprise?” She raised her eyebrows in response of Cathy’s reaction, she put her hands up after her sentence so as to have more of an effect.

“Wait, you invited Kat here too?” Cathy looked up to face Anna, who hummed out a response.

“Yep, she said she wanted us to hang out?” Katherine added onto Anna’s response.

“I figured you could use a break before tonight.” Anna stepped back slightly to give Cathy a little more space.

“Ah,” Cathy mumbled out, “thanks...?”

“We haven’t even started and you’re already thanking us?” Katherine teased Cathy, then reached for her hand, dragging her away.

“Come on! We can go wherever you want, just say the word!” Katherine led Cathy away with a bright smile. Anna followed the two closely behind, and this last statement marked the beginning of their afternoon.

Their first stop was a restaurant, since apparently none of them had eaten anything before coming, so they agreed to fill their stomachs first. When they were walking towards their seats, Anna made the decision of how they should sit by herself, which is making the other two sit on one side while she takes the remaining seat.

Coincidentally, Anna was also a regular at this establishment, so she was quick to pick what she wanted, and offered some of her own opinions on the choices listed. Cathy was starting to get suspicious about how she was acting, it’s almost as if she was planning something....

“I gotta go to the washroom.” Anna announced to the two, then left them there to their own devices. Cathy’s suspicions were starting to get worse, but before she could say anything about it, Katherine began a conversation with her, “you don’t have to worry about it too much, Anna’s just trying to help you out. Don’t read too much into it.”

“How’d you know?” She turned to face Katherine, then realised that there wasn’t really much space between them, making her whip her head back out of shock.

“Oh, I know your overthinking face when I see it.” Katherine replied as if she was complimenting herself for her attentiveness, she even put a hand on her chest to show how proud she was.

“You say that like I overthink a lot,” she tried retorting the other, but then registered the fact that she does overthink a lot. In fact, she’s overthinking at this very moment, “wait, don’t point it out, I’ve realised my mistake.”

That earned a laugh from Katherine, she tried covering it with her hand, but that wasn’t very useful.

Something still troubled Cathy, she kept making glances at the other girl’s shirt. She knew that it looked familiar, but she still can’t remember where she has seen it before. She couldn’t hold that thought in for much longer, so she asked the other before Anna returned to the table, “where have I seen that before?” She pointed towards Katherine’s sweatshirt.

“I found it last night, wanna take a wild guess?”

“I’ve been guessing for the entirety of our walk, please just tell me.” She pleaded, shutting her eyes tight in case it involved any embarrassing backstories.

“You gave it to me, I’m kinda surprised you forgot about it,” she explained to Cathy, who apologised instantly, “you don’t have to be sorry about that! I only remembered that last night!”

“It’s been so long, I really couldn’t remember when I’ve given you that.”

“It still fits and it reminds me of you, so I wore it.” Katherine provided another simple and straightforward explanation, but before Cathy could comment any further, Anna went back to their table. Their meals arrived after a short while, and when the waiter came over to deliver their beverages, Anna found one of the orders to be strange.

“I thought you drank coffee,” she questioned Cathy, who was suddenly reminded of the conversation she had with Jane earlier in the week, but she pushed that memory away, she didn’t need those thoughts to come surfacing up again, “I thought I should change it up a bit.”

Their next destination was a library nearby, it was an inevitable stop for the three anyways, Katherine was interested in the history-based books it had, Cathy was looking for a new piece to read, and Anna was down for anywhere they wanted to go. The rows of books made Anna recall what happened between her and Cathy when they were strolling through the market, but she eventually chalked that event up to Cathy not being in a good mood, since she was practically drooling at the sight of the books at that very moment.

The three split up to search for books that they were interested in respectively. Well, Anna was just wandering through the different sections. The library was one of the places she first went to when she was mysteriously shipped over, lots of memories were made here, and she shuddered at the remembrance of her first few visits. They got better with each visit, but it took her a while to fully finish one book, transitioning to one language to another takes a toll on you.

Cathy swept the bookshelves one after another. Her current objective was to find something that could help her kill some time, reading was a leisurely activity that she’s been doing for a while now, she’d just pick one and read bits and pieces of it everyday, she usually finishes after a week, so she had to visit a bookstore or a library today anyways. She picked out a few, scanned through the title and summary, then placed it back onto the shelf.

Nothing has caught her eye yet, so she strolled along the aisles repeatedly. She’s bumped into Anna exactly once, they just nodded at each other, hoping the interaction wasn’t too awkward. Katherine was nowhere to be found, maybe she already found something and was reading in a corner.

Maybe she just has to settle for something she hasn’t read before instead of being so picky. A book matching every one of her criteria wouldn’t just magically appear, would it?

The atmosphere around her was calm, but she wasn’t. Something always managed to crawl back into her mind, whether it be her godmother or the thief. Was this why she can’t settle on one book? She has talked about her problems to someone already, so why is she still worrying?

The silence was unbearable, she would’ve tried wishing for her surroundings to be louder, but she was in a library, so no chance of that happening.

_She should just forget about it._

She ran her fingers on the edge of one of the bookshelves, wiping off the dust in the process.

_There’s no use worrying about something you have no control over._

She brushed her hand onto her thigh, cleaning the dust she collected on her fingers.

_Just make a choice and get this over with._

She grabbed a random book out, examining its contents and title hurriedly. The large words on the cover read ‘The Lamentation of a Sinner’, she held it close to her chest, then went to go look for Katherine and Anna.

When the three finally met up, Katherine and Anna couldn’t help but notice a slightly distressed look on Cathy.

The trio then found themselves in a clothing shop, since the conversation Katherine had with Cathy inspired the former into bringing the others here.They had no idea what happened when they were at the library, Cathy didn’t bring anything up, she just grew more despondent after the visit. That didn’t discourage the two though. Luckily for Cathy, they were both quite persistent.

“Why are we here?” Anna whispered to Katherine, who didn’t answer the question. She focused onto the pile of clothes she had draped on her arm, a smile found itself on her face, and Anna gave up on getting a response from her.

Cathy stared at the ground, her left hand still clutching onto the book tightly. Her breathing was starting to pick up its pace and she was subconsciously using her other hand to rub the nape of her neck. Something was clearly wrong, you don’t need any prior knowledge of body language to know that.

Anna placed a hand on her shoulder, which seemed to successfully help her in getting a grasp on reality.

“You okay?” Anna asked her with a sincere expression. She answered the question with a quick nod, “I’m fine.”

Anna then directed her attention to the book in Cathy’s hand, “you wanna put it in your bag for now? I doubt it’s comfortable holding that everywhere.”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me.” Cathy dropped the book into the bag Anna had mentioned, perhaps her mind was so muddled that she forgot to store the book inside.

“Cathy! I found something for you!” Katherine exclaimed as she held an article of clothing out for the pair to see, it was a light pink sweatshirt which matched Katherine’s light blue one, at least that’s what Cathy assumed when she first saw it, “would you like to try it on?”

Their last stop was for ice cream. After they had finished with buying clothes, the three of them all decided to end their afternoon off with a cone of this dessert. While Anna was in the process of purchasing it, Cathy couldn’t help but peek into her bag again.

“All I’ve seen you wear are blue hoodies,” Katherine noticed Cathy’s action and decided to make some small talk, “now we’ll match and you won’t be wearing the same colour every time.”

“I just didn’t think pink would suit me,” Cathy replied after she was done staring at the piece of clothing.

“I didn’t think blue would suit me either,” Katherine swiftly responded with a rebuttal, “but here we are, I’m wearing blue and soon you’re going to be wearing pink.”

“Touché, Kat.” Cathy chuckled out.

“Sorry for the wait!” Anna yelled out as she approached with dessert for the two. Cathy held her coffee flavoured ice cream, which earned a quip from Anna, “and here I thought you wanted to switch things up a bit?”

“Ice cream and drinks are two completely different things!” Cathy defended herself, nearly dropping her treat in the middle of her statement, causing the other two to laugh their lungs out, “y’know, it’d be even funnier if one of you drop yours.”

“In your dreams, Cathy.”

Anna took a look at her phone, making sure that she had enough time to get back to the agency. The letters on it read that it’s ten minutes before six o’clock. Perfect timing.

Katherine tossed the paper that originally wrapped around the cone into a bin, then ran up to Cathy and Anna. It was about time for the three to go their separate ways, we all know where they’ll be headed next.

Cathy had to admit that hanging out with them helped her clear her mind, apart from what happened in the library, she didn’t even think about it that much today. While she wasn’t paying attention to the two, Katherine shot Anna a look, signalling something to her.

“I think I forgot something, can you two wait here?” Anna dismissed herself from the scene, leaving Cathy and Katherine alone once again.

“I had fun today, takes me back to when we were still in university,” Katherine started, gaining Cathy’s attention, “that’s also why I wore this, I miss spending time with you.”

“Ah...me too, I didn’t even realise how much I missed doing so until today. I’m still not sure why Anna decided to do this, but I’m glad I came.”

“Thanks for the advice you gave, it really helped me.” Cathy was taken aback by this, she didn’t think that her rambling would’ve worked, but Katherine confirmed it right in front of her.

“So...I guess you talked it out with your cousin then?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think it’d be that easy, but you managed to calm me down enough...” Katherine trailed off, then decided to take an extremely bold step, making the both of them shocked- no, not just the both of them, Anna was also watching the scene unfold.

Katherine stepped directly in front of Cathy, then planted a soft kiss onto the blue girl’s cheek, causing Cathy to immediately stumble backwards out of shock. Her pulse was racing and she could feel her heart beating so rapidly that it could almost just leap out of her chest. Her face was flushed, her eyes shot wide open and she was struggling to form any coherent sentences and thoughts.

“Thanks.” She muttered out. She then ran past the stunned girl and towards Anna, leaving Cathy to stand there alone, still trying to understand what in the world had just happened. She stood at the middle of a street, blushing madly from what occurred. Or in the words of a certain pink girl, Cathy was ‘blue-screening’.

“I invited you here to help calm her nerves! Not make her die from a heart attack!” Anna scolded Katherine, playfully hitting her on the shoulder.

“You also said that I should clear her mind!” Katherine argued, directing their point of focus back onto Cathy, “that did the trick just fine!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling the next few chapters are going to be fun to write...  
> I should probably add a slight parrward tag after that last scene....any thoughts?  
> Anyone catch the historical reference? Idk I’m kinda proud of myself for that one...

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment! I’ll try responding as soon as possible!


End file.
